Heart and Soul
by Verdonbenzeit
Summary: Absolute Obedience alone could enslave the world. It could make an emperor. The tale is sung, and always the Black Prince rises to topple Britannia, but this time, the Black Prince shall wield more than Obedience against Britannia's might. A single chance in the beginning of Lelouch's journey will change the tale, as the Black Prince's Dog of War is set loose on his foes.
1. Chapter 1

**Cut and dry intro notes**: Usual ambitious plan to write the world of Code Geass, but with changes and a different focus than the anime took. This includes a male OC, so if those aren't your cup of tea, please try to read on anyway, or have a nice day. Chapter 1 is largely episode one, but for those fics that don't change the entire history of the Geass-verse, that's actually common. " ZZZZZ" = scene break, sometimes a perspective change

ZZZZZ

"I understand."

Lelouch's voice was light, almost glib, as he briskly strode down a hallway, a small cell phone pressed to his ear. The fact one of his benefactors on the other end of the line sounded both frantic and despairing didn't bother him at all. If anything, as the old man who introduced him to gambling chess continued to explain the situation, Lelouch felt boredom creeping back in. Chess against pampered nobles was fun, but only to see them break down once a 'mere schoolboy' shamed them.

"Survive for another thirty minutes," Lelouch murmured into the phone. Thirty minutes was plenty of time for him to find Rivalz and get on the road. "I will be there soon, sir."

He ended the call and turned to take the stairs down to the garage. It was between classes, and Lelouch knew Rivalz would spend any free time not in Student Council business working on his bike. All it'd take was the simple offer of letting Rivalz bet on his victory and yet another simple objective would be met.

A blur wearing the Ashford Academy uniform crashed into him before he even made it to the garage, though. "What…" Lelouch groaned from the pain of having his tailbone shoved into a railing, but pulled himself to his feet to glare at his attacker. "Watc-Rivalz?"

"Oh! Hey, Lulu!" Rivalz grinned, in that I'm-probably-at-fault-but-don't-I-look-sweet way Lelouch never could. "What's up?"

"Rivalz…" Lelouch sighed. "No matter. I need a ride to a chess game. You can make some easy money, so-"

"Oof! Sorry, buddy. No can do; my bike's at the shop! I had to run just to get here now."

_Of all days, today?_ Lelouch scowled at Rivalz, even though he knew it wasn't Rivalz's fault, already thinking of any way he could make it to the match on foot in time. Of course, there weren't any, but without Rivalz's bike, the only options belonged to students he didn't know, which would take far too much time and _I don't have the time to guarantee they'll do it for money or-_

"Geez, Lulu, you keep scowling like that and your face will get stuck. Your fans would be heartbroken!" Rivalz hooked his arm around Lelouch's neck and marched them both back up the stairs. "I'm sorry, but I'll make it up to you! Shirley told me her boyfriend's got a bike, so just go ask her to ask him to give you a ride. "

"Shirley's boyfriend?" Lelouch repeated, already trying to bring the guy to mind. He didn't have much; Shirley had started acting less awkward around him once she'd started going out, which was what Lelouch did remember best, and she'd mentioned once that he was part of some club.

Still, if he had a way to get to the chess match, he was just what Lelouch needed. The small details didn't matter as long as he still got what he wanted. _In the end, _Lelouch groused, eyes flicking to Rivalz's back as the bluenette lead him to Shirley. _Results are the only things that matter._

ZZZZZ

The sound of a fist finding its home in someone's flesh echoed through the room, making a few of the younger club members wince while one of the older ones sighed in disgust. The violent sound repeated two more times before a yelp was followed by the sound of someone being thrown onto the ground. The room stayed quiet for a few moments, until another student still in their uniform peeked into the room, holding a ringing cell phone in his hand.

"Hey, Wolfgang! Your girlfriend's callin'!"

The student in the middle of the room who was still standing pulled his opponent to their feet, then jogged over to get his phone. "Thanks, Smith," He grumbled, wiping sweat from his face with a towel. He waved the other student away and turned around to talk into his phone. "Shirley, you alright?"

"I'm fine, just a little hungry," Shirley replied. She sounded like she was distracted, so he waited for her to continue. "Oh, right! I wanted to ask for a favor, Evrard."

"Mm, alright. What is it?"

"I just need you to give my friend a ride into the city." She actually seemed happy about asking. "He needs to pick up some medicine for his sister, and he reeeally needs a ride, so..."

Evrard snorted, but chuckled. "Sure, fine. Quick ride'll be fun, anyway. Tell 'im to meet me in the garage."

"Thank you, Evrard! Oh, Lulu, he said-"

Evrard snapped his phone shut and tossed it at his bag on the floor. After catching the eye of one of the senior members and waving, he changed clothes and started for the garage. Helping some rich kid fulfill their karma mission for the day wasn't his dream job, but if Shirley wanted him to do it, he'd play chauffer. It wasn't like he didn't want to get out of Ashford's stuffy halls and relax, anyway, so 'Lulu' was a convenient enough excuse.

ZZZZZ

To his relief, Lelouch didn't have to wait in the garage long. Barely two minutes had passed since Shirley had called her boyfriend—_Evrard Wolfgang, _his mind supplied—before the boyfriend in question walked in and waved him over to one of the bikes. He took in the basics to commit to memory—_taller, more built, bit of a thug_—and accepted the helmet he was offered.

"Just so you know," Lelouch waited for them to be already off the school grounds before he spoke up. "I'm not after medicine. I need a ride to a chess match, through the ghetto."

Evrard glanced down at him once, but turned his eyes back to the road. "…didn't tell Shirley 'cause?"

"This chess match in particular has quite a bit of money riding on it. Shirley happens to disapprove of my…" Lelouch paused. "…choices to indulge, and I needed a quick, no questions means to get to it."

"For the future, don't fucking lie to Shirley again." Evrard growled, but didn't turn off the road or stop. "Let me know when, and I'll drive you."

"That's…awfully charitable of you."

"You're arrogant and you know where we're going for a match. You obviously don't lose, so you're easy money. "Evrard chuckled. "I get out of Ashford every so often and get money to take Shirley to nice places, while you get whatever you want from this. We both win."

"I see." Lelouch murmured, glancing at Evrard from the side of his eyes. Shirley's boyfriend being such an unscrupulous, rough person hadn't even been a possibility until now. He'd just figured it was another, less awkward Rivalz that Shirley had hooked up with, but the only similarity between Rivalz and Evrard was their bikes.

ZZZZZ

By the time Evrard finished securing his bike, Lelouch and his opponent, some smug, overconfident-looking noble with a weasel's mustache, were already making their moves. Evrard took a few looks at the noble's guards, then at the man himself before he stood opposite the guards on Lelouch's left.

He tried to watch the board, but the seemingly meaningless movement of the pieces was boring. He'd never been interested in mind games like chess. The only thing more boring than playing was watching it, though.

"I must say," the noble shifted in his seat, hand moving to his pocket and pulling Evrard's attention from the game to him. "For a schoolboy, you play decently."

"I wish I could say the same," Lelouch smirked. "Mate in four moves."

"What?" Again the hand moved to the pocket. Evrard shifted and glanced at the two guards. Both of their hands were out in the open. "You've got a loose mouth, boy."

The game continued, and like Lelouch claimed, the game was over in four moves. Any other time, Evrard probably would've laughed at the shocked look on the loser's face, but now wasn't the time for it. Once the shock faded, he saw the anger growing in the man's eyes. The noble's hand shot into his pocket again, but this time, Evrard stepped forward and loomed in front of the man's chair, glaring down like the noble was a bug.

"You even think about pullin' that out," He sneered, noting that Lelouch and the old man who'd let him in were watching. The noble froze, staring up in shock and a bit of fear this time. "…just try it, and I'll break both your hands before you even touch the trigger."

"You lost, asshole; pay up."

ZZZZZ

"That was rather dangerous of you, wasn't it?"

Lelouch and Evrard were outside the game parlor, Evrard unlocking his bike while Lelouch absently watched a news report on a billboard. Though he'd eventually won the money he'd earned from the chess match, Lelouch was still feeling nervous. Evrard's threatening the noble had been a shock, one that he wasn't sure he wanted to repeat itself anytime in the future. Still, as nervous as Evrard might make him, Lelouch owed him for keeping the game parlor from turning into a bloodbath.

"I admit I didn't notice the gun, myself," Lelouch continued. Evrard tossed him a helmet, but kept listening. "but was it necessary to make that comment about his hands?"

"The slug was a coward, plain and simple. The gun was just a crutch he's probably never even used before." The bike's motor came to life with a purr and Evrard swung his legs over it. "I know the type who'll shoot and who won't. He wasn't going to shoot."

That got Lelouch's attention. So far, he'd been fine just considering Evrard a tough guy, but that kind of comment was just too suspicious. _What kind of guy is Shirley dating? _Lelouch sat in the sidecar and glanced at Evrard. Before he could bring it up, though, the billboard above changed to an image of Prince Clovis.

An irritatingly familiar speech about justice and terrorism spewed from Clovis' mouth, with just enough fake empathy for Lelouch to want to punch his brother's face in. Clovis had been tolerable as a child, playing chess upon demand and being entertaining when he lost, at least, but as a man and Steward of Area Eleven, the man was insufferable. A strutting peacock who profited off the struggles and abuse of the Japanese, and a disgustingly perfect example of everything Lelouch hated about Britannia.

To his side, Evrard spat on the ground and pulled onto the road before Clovis could finish. Lelouch glanced at him, but wasn't prepared for the look of sheer anger and hate clouding his face. The low purr of the engine erupted into a loud roar as they raced down the road, the bike seemingly sharing its rider's foul mood. _Why is he so upset?_

"…Decided not to mourn?" Lelouch ventured, keeping his voice neutral.

"The fuck good would it do?" He hadn't expected a snarl in response, let alone one that violent. "Mourn and pray all you want; tears don't bring the dead back to life! It's just a fucking sham!" Evrard swerved onto an exit and joined a highway path. His voice got lower as the anger faded. "All it does it make the responsible feel less guilt. It's pointless."

_Woah…_

They rode in silence for a few moments. Lelouch couldn't find any words to say to that, and somehow, he felt that Evrard didn't want to feel better. It was a familiar anger to Lelouch, one of helplessness and rage against the unfairness and cruelty of the world. It was the same anger he'd felt when he'd cast aside his royal status in front of Charles zi Britannia when the man refused to investigate his mother's death. It was an anger that refused to go away until vengeance had been obtained.

"…hey, Lelouch." Evrard was looking at him now. The road ahead looked clear. "Don't tell Shirley about that, and I won't tell her you lied about helping your sister, got it?"

"That's fine. I didn't plan on telling her an-Look out!"

A huge truck pulled up behind them out of nowhere and nearly smashed into them, if not for both Evrard and the truck's driver swerving at the same time. Lelouch grunted as they skidded to a stop along the side rail. To the side, the truck crashed through a barrier and groaned to a stop in the open court of a construction building.

"Shit…What the hell was that?" Evrard pulled Lelouch out of the sidecar and started pulling parts up from his bike. Smoke hissed from the engine. "Argh, now wh-Lelouch?"

Lelouch had already taken off to help the drivers once a crowd of typically useless Britannians started taking pictures with their phones. Their continued apathy and lazy disregard disgusted him, enough that he couldn't help but actually help the crashed driver. He groaned and tried to heave a steel girder off the truck, but it was far too heavy for him to move.

"Lelouch!" Evrard stood by the ladder leading up the truck. "We can't get past that shit, so try here."

Together, they climbed the ladder, but before they could call out to the driver, the truck shifted into action and sped forward. Lelouch fell into the truck first, and when Evrard tried to grab his arm to pull him up, he was also thrown inside. They tumbled against the walls and a strange, spherical object anchored to the floor as the truck groaned and pulled onto smooth roads again, but eventually were able to find their feet again.

"…Shirley isn't going to be happy." Evrard grumbled, body tense and looking around the room.

_Really?_ "Is that all you're concerned about right now?" Lelouch asked. Seriously, they were kidnapped by some hit-and-run driver in a truck, and now he worried about his girlfriend's feelings? Evrard was impossible. "Let's try to find a way out of here."

"And do what? Honest, law-abiding citizens don't do hit-and-runs, then race off from the scene this fast, Lelouch. Whoever's driving this car probably isn't gonna just let us off." Evrard paused and glanced at the back wall. After a moment, he frowned. "Do you hear that?"

"Hear wh-"

"**Surrender!"**

_The military? What in the world are they chasing this truck for? _Lelouch glanced at Evrard, then at the strange device in the truck with them. _Could it be that?_

Lelouch groaned as Evrard suddenly grabbed him and pulled him back against a wall, just as a door opened and a red-haired girl stepped into the room. Lelouch struggled quietly against Evrard's hand over his mouth at first, but quit when the girl touched a panel, and one of the walls of the trailer turned into the entrance to a-

_A Knightmare? _

"Kallen!" The girl paused at the voice from her radio. "The military is sending more! Should we use **that**?"

"No way! If we use the poison gas now, it'll be a massacre!" Lelouch paled at the implication of what the strange device they were trapped with was. Meanwhile, the girl finished her preparations and started entering her knightmare. "Just leave this to me; you get away through the subway tunnels!"

With that last remark, the knightmare ejected from the truck and soon filled the air with the sound of explosions, leaving Lelouch and Evrard trapped once again in the truck, along with what Lelouch now knew were terrorists with poison gas. Evrard let him go and as he slid down the wall of the truck next to Evrard's feet in momentary shock, Lelouch's mind raced.

_Actual terrorists? They stole poison gas and the military is after them, which means the military likely views anyone even near this canister as a terrorist. So much for explaining the situation to them and getting home. _He glanced at the poison gas container, then at Evrard. _I can probably rely on Evrard to help get us out of here, but can the two of us really get away from this without trouble? What if the terrorist has a gun, or the military really thinks we're terrorists? What if one of us is shot and the other-_

Lelouch choked as the implications of that thought sunk in. If he was shot, it wasn't a matter of whether or not Evrard would drag him along. If he was shot, he could _die_, leaving Nunnally all alone. That couldn't happen. First their mother, gunned down by someone their father refused to punish, then her brother? After everything she'd gone through, he'd be leaving her all alone-_No! _

_I don't have time for this. _Lelouch bit his lip and focused. He could panic later, once he was safe. Now, he and Evrard had to get out and get away. That's all that mattered.

"Evr-"

"Lelouch, get down!"

Evrard tackled Lelouch and forced him into the floor of the truck, just as bullets tore through the side of the truck's walls. He felt his own head being tucked between the floor and Evrard, then the shaking and tumbling of their ride crashing and scraping through the subway tunnels. For a few minutes, Lelouch stayed in the cocoon of safety Evrard had made, until the truck lurched one last time and came to a stop.

ZZZZZ

When the truck continued to remain unmoving, Lelouch let Evrard pull him to his feet. After everything that had happened and was still happening, he was tired, and letting someone do physical effort for him was not something he was currently above. One of the walls collapsed, revealing that they were indeed underground, in the subway tunnels long abandoned since the war.

Lelouch stepped forward, using the poison gas canister for support to peer out into the tunnels, only for a booted foot to come flying at him out of nowhere. _Oh god not the face!_ He raised his arms and closed his eyes, waiting for the inevitable blow to land, but the only thing he felt was a forceful grip pulling him back, followed by a grunt. He opened his eyes in time to see Evrard standing in front of him, in the middle of throwing a masked soldier by the leg at one of the truck's walls.

"Stay behind me, Lelouch!" Evrard hissed, holding his forearm in pain. He snarled at the soldier, who was rising to their feet.

"…Lelouch?" The soldier asked. He tugged off the top of his mask, revealing brown hair and hauntingly familiar green eyes. Green eyes that Lelouch remembered looking at him with scorn, and later, friendship, when he was younger.

"Suzaku?" Lelouch started forward, but was stopped by Evrard's outstretched arm. Evrard was still glaring at Suzaku, clearly distrusting. After a moment, Lelouch's mind caught up, and he shared that distrust. "You…became a soldier of Britannia?"

"You're a terrorist, Lelouch? I know you were upset with Britannia, but…"

"Idiot!" Lelouch spat, feeling a welcome annoyance building up inside. He'd forgotten how dense Suzaku could be, and seeing that it hadn't changed was one of the few good things happening. "Of course I'm not-"

As though it had grown bored of Lelouch's reunion with one of his first true friends, the poison canister suddenly burst to life, splitting open with a barrage of bright light and steam. Lelouch brought his arm up to block his mouth, but for what had to be at least the third time, he felt Evrard seize him and literally throw him forward into Suzaku. Suzaku, being another one of the physical freaks, caught him and slapped a gas mask over his mouth, then joined Evrard in forming a barrier between him and the canister.

All in all, when the smoke faded, revealing not poisonous gas, but a green-haired woman in a tacky-looking straight-jacket, Lelouch was far from appreciative.

"Get off me!" He ripped the gas mask off and moved past both Suzaku and Evrard, kneeling by the woman to investigate. She was bound by straps around her limbs and mouth, and further constricted by zippers over her bindings. "Does this girl really look like poison gas to you, Suzaku?" He fumbled with the straps over her mouth. While Suzaku stood, staring at the girl with a confused look on his face, Evrard helped unbind her legs.

"You goddamn wretch!"

ZZZZZ

Evrard tensed and turned around. There, standing nearly thirty strong, equipped with standard Britannian elite assault rifles, were Britannian soldiers. At the head of the group was an officer, his face taut with anger and cruelty, who yelled at Suzaku once more.

"You dare to lay hands on that which even average Britannians are forbidden to know of?"

The situation was bad, but it wasn't impossible. Evrard took note of the unused gun at Suzaku's side. They were outnumbered, but maybe with the right cover, he could unload Suzaku's gun long enough for them to make a run for it. The girl might be dead weight, but he could handle carrying her along long enough for them to escape from the soldiers. All that mattered was getting the right distraction, and they'd be home free.

Suzaku ruined that plan, though, by leaving them behind and returning to his superiors' sides. _Should've known. Fucking soldiers always stick to their own!_ Evrard cursed. He looked around again, looking for something, anything, that would help them escape. There was nothing, which meant…

_We're just going to have to run for it._ He glowered. It was a terrible idea, the ultimate of terrible, probably suicidal ideas, but with Suzaku's gun impossible to reach, and both Lelouch and the girl to keep from getting shot, it was the only way. He crouched down in front of Lelouch and the girl, and motioned to Lelouch with his hands. "Get her on my back, Lelouch. We're gonna try to run through the tunnels."

"What?" Lelouch actually looked away from the soldiers to fix him with a shocked look. "We can't just leave Suzaku here!"

"He's a goddamn soldier, Lelouch; he's already chosen his loyalties, so let's just g-"

A shot rang out, echoing throughout the underground chamber, followed by the thud of Suzaku's body hitting the stones beneath their feet. The officer of the soldiers looked down on him, the smoke from his gun still hissing in the stagnant air of the tunnels.

"I suppose that's all you can expect from a filthy Eleven," The officer shrugged, his men pointing their guns at Evrard and Lelouch now. The officer smiled cruelly, a mocking, fake thing of fake pity. "It's bad luck for you students. You likely are indeed Britannians, but our orders are all witnesses must die." He raised a hand to the air. "Men! Capture the girl and kill the students!"

"Yes, my lord!"

As the soldiers drew closer, their rifles pointed straight at them, Evrard's mind began to race in time with the rapid beating of his heart. It wasn't fair. All he'd been doing was helping a friend of his girlfriend do some shitty gambling match, and now they were both about to die? It wasn't right! It was supposed to be a quick, easy match and he'd drop Lelouch off and take Shirley out to a good restaurant with the money he'd won. It wasn't supposed to end with Lelouch and himself on their knees underground, waiting for their deaths to take them at the hands of fucking soldiers!

_If I just had more power…_Evrard snarled, eyes darting back and forth from soldier to soldier. Their emotionless visors stared back, infuriating him even more. _If I could just…If I had the power to stop them, we wouldn't die! Damn it! _He glanced at Lelouch, then the girl behind him. _I don't want those military bastards to take another life! Damn it, damn it, damn it! I refuse to die here!_

Evrard rose to his feet, not thinking, but prepared to charge the soldiers in his rage, when the world around him flared, then faded to white. The soldiers, the officer, Lelouch, and even the tunnel faded in the blinding, white light, until he was alone in a world of endless white and movement and a horrific, deep sensation of _life surging from endless currents, a formless, unspeakable sea of mankind and the sensations that manifest in their hearts_ that left him breathless.

_Do you so truly wish to survive? _A woman's voice, calm despite the unsettling sea of energy and inaudible _voices_ spinning around him. _Is the life you live truly so precious to you?_

_I…_

_It seems you do. Very well. _The voice changed, becoming more commanding and _ancient, brimming with power and knowledge and horror_ despite losing none of the tranquility from before. _Then this shall be our contract. In exchange for the power to survive, you shall grant me my wish._

_A wish…?_

The voice continued, either unhearing of his question, or uncaring. _This power shall change you. You will exist as a human, but something different entirely as well. A different life, bound by different rules and different truths, this power of the King will lead you down a life of loneliness. Are you prepared for such a fate?_

_I…_

Without warning, a memory burst to life around him, replacing the pure whiteness with crumbling, burning buildings, pitch black smoke, and the screaming barrage of tank shells and bullets. A man was gunned down in front of him, his blood splattering on Evrard's cheek. A soldier, masked and grinning, kicked the man onto his back, then fired another barrage of bullets into his face.

"Sorry, General." The soldier cooed, a grin on his face that filled Evrard with more hate and rage than he'd ever felt. "Orders are orders."

_I accept! I'll endure anything, fulfill whatever wish, so long as I survive!_

The world erupted again, the burning house disappearing and the tunnel filled with approaching soldiers replacing it. Evrard stood, covering both Lelouch and the girl behind him, as he glared at the soldiers once more. The panic from before was gone, replaced by a cool, simmering hatred and the sensation of pure power begging to be released from within. He could feel it, the power the girl had spoken of, ancient and primal underneath his skin, and as the soldiers paused and stared at him, he knew what he had to do.

However, before he could act, the truck behind them suddenly burst into flames as an explosion tore through the driver's cabin. A multitude of smaller, still dangerous explosions followed, causing the ceiling of rocks above them to shake and loosen. The soldiers looked up and started backing away from the falling rocks, which was all the distraction Evrard needed.

"Lelouch, let's go!" He roared, grabbing the green-haired girl and hauling her on his back. Lelouch hesitated, still staring at Suzaku's body, but Evrard seized him by the arm and dragged him along, away from the falling rocks, the fallen soldiers, and the Britannian military that had nearly killed them all.

ZZZZZ

Explosions from tank shells shook the ground around them as they fled down a tunnel. Lelouch paused before an opening leading to another tunnel, and Evrard stopped as well until Lelouch motioned for them to continue. It had been the same thing for the past ten minutes; with Evrard carrying the girl on his back, Lelouch had taken to making sure they weren't running into another den of soldiers. It was all he could do to try and keep from thinking about Suzaku.

About Suzaku, who had always been brave, and warm, and just _good_, who was just a corpse, cooling underground with a bullet in his back, with none of his family even knowing he was dead. About Suzaku, who had said _"If we're together-_

"-then we can do anything." Lelouch murmured, trying to break free from the thoughts again. Evrard watched him carefully, as did the girl on his back, but Lelouch stayed firm and continued down the tunnel, leading them to a set of stairs that would hopefully lead up to an escape path.

Lelouch peeked over the edge of the stairs, only to stare at a Japanese man's body as it fell to the ground before him, body full of fresh bullets from the soldiers standing at the only doorway out. He fell back to the surface of the stairs and tried to crawl back as quietly as possible, flinching when a little girl shrieked, then silenced by another rain of gunfire. He held his breath. If they just waited a little longer, the soldiers would lose interest and move on, and they could-

_Riiiiii-zzt_

Lelouch mashed the end call button on his cell phone as quickly as he could, but within seconds, all three of them had been hauled from the stairs by soldiers. Three of the ten soldiers surrounded the girl, while the remaining aimed their guns at Lelouch and Evrard, who were forced against a stone wall. Lelouch glared at the officer, who smirked smugly at them, his pistol aimed casually at the ground.

"Truly, you two should be commended for getting this far, but you _are_ Britannians, so it's to be expected." The officer sneered and lifted his pistol to aim at Evrard's face. "You look like the most trouble, boy. You get to die first!"

"Don't harm him!"

The green-haired girl tore free from the soldiers around her and leapt forward, before the officer could stop his shot. The bullet tore through the air silently, then slammed into the girl's skull with a sickeningly moist sound. She stood, frozen in time for a moment, then slumped to the ground, just as Evrard howled with rage and darted past her, towards the officer. Lelouch tried to pull him back, but he missed, and Evrard made it to the officer and smashed his fist into the man's face.

The officer fell, and Evrard leapt on top of him and started pummeling the man, a foul, horrible aura of hate all around him. He'd barely landed three more blows before the butt of a rifle slammed into his face and knocked him off the officer and onto the stone floor.

"Damn brat!" The officer stumbled to his feet, then lashed out and drove his boot into Evrard's side. "That's it! Men, take aim!" The soldiers around him pointed their rifles at Evrard's back. "And…"

Lelouch stared in horror. He tried to think of anything he could do to stop them from killing Evrard, but nothing happened. No brilliant plans came to mind, no cunning tricks to get them out of here. It was just the impossibility of the task in front of him; it was him being unable to do _anything_ to save Evrard, just like he'd failed to be able to save Suzaku, and just like he'd been helpless to save his mother! _This…it can't happen again! I can't lose someone else to these bastards just because I'm so helpless!_

_If I just had power…_ He reached out to the dead girl's hand. She didn't even know them, but she'd thrown herself in the way of a bullet? _What the hell is this? First Suzaku, then this girl, and Evrard next? Damn it! Will Britannia take everything away from me? _An image of Nunnally, smiling and gentle in her chair, flashed in his mind. _No…No! They can't! I refuse to let them-_

The soldiers' guns drew closer, but as the officer raised his hand to command them, time began to slow. Lelouch stared at the Britannian soldiers, who froze in place, locked in time, then down at his wrist, where the green-haired girl's hand had tightly gripped him. The hand around his wrist squeezed, and the world erupted into a swirling torrent of white light and voices all around him.

_Hm. Two in one day is something new._

_The girl?_ Lelouch started, but the voice continued, overpowering his own thoughts entirely.

_I will offer you the same offer I extended to your friend, Lelouch vi Britannia. I will grant you power, the power of Kings, to combat your helplessness in the world, in exchange for granting me my wish. However, the path of Geass is the path of loneliness; you will be a human, but something else entirely. A being that follows a different life, with different rules. It will be a great struggle, but-_

A scene, faster than even a second, but lasting in Lelouch's mind for what felt like minutes, cut through the girl's voice. It was of several men in robes standing before an immense series of pillars, and at their head stood a gigantic man, dressed in fine robes and wearing a great, curled wig atop his head. It was a familiar man, one that Lelouch had cultivated years of frustration and rage towards.

"Once again, Ragnarok looms before us!" Charles zi Britannia, Emperor of Britannia, roared. "Let us welcome it, and prepare once more!"

_I accept! No matter the consequences, I accept! _Lelouch howled in his mind. Even seeing _that man_ again, even as an illusion, was enough to remind him. To remind him of the pain and suffering that man had caused. Of the rage that had propelled him for years to seek his vengeance! _Give me power and I will grant you whatever you want!_

_Very well._

The world of white and voices twisted, then blurred away back into the dungy warehouse with the soldiers and the dead bodies. Lelouch blinked, feeling _power_, pure and exhilarating, filling his core. It felt so good, as though as long as he had the power just waiting to burst free, he could do anything, with no one to stop him! It felt so good that he had to laugh, and he did, openly and joyously, even as the soldiers stopped and turned to stare at him, and even as the smug officer turned his gun on him.

"What's the matter, schoolboy?" The gun waved up and down a bit, mockingly. "Lost it, have you?"

"Tell me, oh noble soldier…" Lelouch smiled, staring up at the ceiling, where sunlight and dust had combined to form a halo of light. He held his hand over his face, shielding his left eye from sight. "As a Britannian who _hates_ Britannia, should I truly live the life of a Britannian?"

"What the hell? Damn br-ugh!" The officer froze as a chilling wave of dread washed over him, as though the room itself danced with static energy. His men around him shared his fate, frozen in place, staring wide-eyed at the schoolboy and his horrifyingly magnetic charisma.

"Gentlemen. Proud soldiers of Britannia." Lelouch smiled and lowered his gaze to them all. His smile slowly grew twisted, and he removed his hand from his suddenly vibrant, glowing, crimson eye. "Who are so loyal to your royalty…"

"**I command you; Obey me!"**


	2. Chapter 2

A.N.: A short two-parter, because total thing feels too long for a single chapter's reading. The second half should be up in a few days at most. Still cruising through the introductory set-up stuff, but we'll see more deviant changes right in the next part.

ZZZZZ

As the massacre of the Shinjuku ghetto raged on, a temporary moment of peace existed within one of the numerous warehouses that made up Shinjuku's industrial zone. Though soldiers and tanks and knightmare squads outside slaughtered the Japanese by the hundreds, the ten Britannian soldiers inside the warehouse found themselves incapable of violence. They could not fathom shooting Japanese children, or smashing through Japanese homes.

All that existed in their minds was the wait for Lelouch vi Britannia, their true lord and master, to command them.

Lelouch, for his part, observed the reverence and expectation on the soldiers' faces with a calculating eye. The power that had been waiting to burst free from within him had been made manifest, and even without knowing the details of how it worked, the soldiers before him gave a good enough idea. Obedience, unquestioned and unavoidable, from anyone he chose to make his target, and in a stroke of luck, he'd chosen the most useful command possible for the soldiers.

Continued obedience.

"Move away from him." Lelouch ordered, watching with a dark delight as they _saluted him_ before following his command. Evrard slowly rose to his feet and spat blood on the officer's boot before he retreated to Lelouch's side. Lelouch didn't miss the careful, wary look Evrard gave him, but he also didn't miss that Evrard placed himself between him and the soldiers. He smiled, just a bit.

"Now, you rank and file soldiers." The nine soldiers stood at attention and saluted once more. Lelouch paused, giving thought to what he could have them do. The limitations of his new power were unknown, but so far, they had followed his few orders without fail. _I wonder if they can handle complex commands?_ "Head outside and call in _only _two knightmare units for backup. As soon as they arrive, get the pilots out and kill them, but make sure you get their keys and activation codes, then bring them to me. "

"Yes, my lord!"

_They acknowledged it, at least. _Lelouch followed their departure with his eyes and waited for the last soldier to leave the warehouse before he turned to the remaining officer. There was no telling how precisely the soldiers would follow his orders, or even how long the command of 'Obey me!' would last. The officer would prove another theory, but later. "Captain, follow me and obey any further orders I give you."

"Yes, my lord!"

"Evrard?" The schoolboy in question glared at the officer one last time, then turned around to face Lelouch. He looked a little bloody and beat up, but otherwise seemed together. In a morbid way, he only barely looked as though he'd nearly been shot to death moments before. "How…are you alright?"

Evrard scoffed, but smirked wryly. "About as good as I should be after almost dying. You?"

Lelouch's face twisted. That was such a flippant response, as though it wasn't even a big deal. Still, at least Evrard was alive. Britannia hadn't taken _someone_ at least. "I'm fine. We shouldn't stick around long, though. Once the Sutherlands get here, we should try to get away."

"Right." Evrard glanced back at the Britannian officer. He stood silent, eyes still red-rimmed and waiting. Evrard frowned. "What about…_them_?"

A gunshot rang out, causing Evrard's head to whip towards the doors leading out. By the time the second shot fired, he'd already started pulling Lelouch behind the officer and had stolen the man's gun from him. He kept it aimed at the doors, using the officer's shoulder as a brace, and ignoring Lelouch's attempts to free himself from his newfound discomfort. A few seconds passed, and the soldiers from before marched in as one unit and stopped in front of the officer.

"My lord!" One of them stepped up and saluted. "Two Sutherlands and their access requirements, as ordered!"

Lelouch smirked and pushed his way past Evrard and the officer. He held out his hand and the soldier gave him two keys. "AZ834-YD3Y, and YEW33-N9NE, sir!"

"Well done, soldiers," Lelouch turned and handed Evrard the second key. He paused and considered the soldiers for a moment. There were plenty of things he could still have them do, but given the situation and the conditions so far, it was all far too crude and had too high a chance of coming back to bite him later. There was also the concern of how long they would continue to obey him; they could be his eternal servants, or, more likely, they could snap out of whatever magic his new power had them under at the worst time.

A gunshot blasted from behind Lelouch and nearly caused a heart attack, but after a moment passed, it was one of his brainwashed soldiers that fell to the ground and not him. The sound repeated two more times before Lelouch turned and watched Evrard put down a fourth soldier and another before he could reach the other boy. Lelouch grabbed at Evrard's arm and tugged it away from the soldiers, grunting from the effort.

"What the hell are you doing?" Lelouch huffed and stared into Evrard's eyes. Evrard looked calm, but his eyes were wild with a cold anger. Lelouch immediately recognized the anger, but pressed on. "Well?"

"They're threats, Lelouch. I don't know how long your magic obedience thing works, and I'd rather not take _our_ chances with it." Evrard turned back to the soldiers and aimed the officer's gun again. "Besides, they were ready to kill us without a second thought. Even if you can keep them under your control, they're still just grunt soldiers. They aren't important enough to keep alive."

Lelouch frowned. It wasn't as though he entirely disagreed with Evrard. The soldiers had pretty much expended any efficient use they might've had by getting the Sutherlands. None of them had enough standing in the military to affect anything other than _maybe_ getting a good assassination done, and that was just a waste of his power. He grabbed Evrard's arm again and stepped forward, catching the eyes of each of the soldiers with his own.

"At least save your bullets, then, Evrard." Lelouch felt the power, still inside him, just waiting to be used. It wasn't as pressing as before, where it had been an ocean raging against a dam. Now, it waited, patiently, for him to bring it to the surface. "Common soldiers, hear this final command; Die!"

To Lelouch's shock, an ecstatic grin spread across the faces of each of the soldiers as they drew their guns and pressed them up against the bottom of their chins. Each soldier gave a smart salute to him, then returned their hands to their rifles, and with a jolly "Yes, my lord!" each, they blew their own brains out. A splash of blood landed on Lelouch's cheek, and he numbly watched their bodies slump to the floor, the happy grins still fresh on their faces.

ZZZZZ

Evrard couldn't fight off the shudder that ran through his body. He'd stared right into the eyes of one of the now dead soldiers, and when Lelouch had commanded them, those red-rimmed eyes just _exploded _with joy. It was as though the soldier hadn't even considered the fact that he was about to die, just that he was obeying Lelouch's orders, like they were the word of God. Even now, corpse cooling on the dirty ground, the soldier's eyes still glimmered with that fulfillment.

He grabbed Lelouch by the shoulders and dragged him away from the bodies, rubbing the blood off the other's face with his shirt sleeve. Lelouch followed numbly for a few seconds, then came to with a shake of his head. Evrard let him pull away and watched carefully as Lelouch began to regain his composure. It was like watching someone piece together a cracked, broken mask. Lelouch went from numb and quiet to calm and assured in a matter of seconds, just in posture.

"…You see? Much safer for us my way." Lelouch grinned, looking impishly coy and teasing. He looked just like any teenage boy would, poking fun at a friend. It was impressive and disturbing at the same time. "You even get to save bullets, which we could need."

"Tch, sure, Lelouch. " Evrard lightly punched Lelouch's shoulder and accepted the knightmare ignition key he offered. He turned the key over in his hand a few times, admiring it, then walked over to the remaining Britannian officer and glared at him. "Hey, prick. Gimme your jacket. "

The officer paid him no mind. In fact, it was as though nothing existed in front of the officer's eyes. Evrard stared, and the empty, waiting, red-rimmed eyes of Lelouch's brain slave stared back. "…asshole. Hey, Lelouch!"

"What is it?" Evrard heard the foot tap behind him and could pretty much see Lelouch standing like a bored girl, even without looking. "We need to get moving already. We're lucky we haven't been found by any other soldiers yet."

"Tell your puppet to fork over his jacket. I need it." Lelouch sighed, but a few seconds later, Evrard had the coat hanging over his arm and was moving towards the green-haired girl's corpse. He knelt in front of her and placed her inside the coat, then folded it around her and picked her up. Lelouch eyed the girl's face from within the coat as he approached.

"Is there a reason you're bringing her body with us, Evrard?"

"She saved our lives, Lelouch." Evrard grumbled. He looked down at the bullet hole in the girl's temple and bit his lip. "Threw herself in front of a bullet for us _and _gave us whatever powers she gave us. That's a hell of a lot for two strangers. She at least deserves to not rot in this shithole."

Lelouch went quiet at that, his eyes dimming, and Evrard waited for him to snap out of it before continuing. "Let's just get going, Lelouch. Deal with your slave soldier and let's hightail it."

Evrard readjusted the girl's body, then walked out of the warehouse. Two blue Sutherland knightmares knelt outside behind the corpses of two more Britannian soldiers. He kicked one of the corpses over and looked into the soldier's face. The man had died in shock, his face still locked in questioning fear. Evrard smirked. _That's how you bastards should die. Not with fucking smiles on your faces._ He moved past the body and crawled into the cockpit, taking care not to hit the girl's body on anything.

Once he'd set the girl on the floor out of the way, Evrard stood and waited for Lelouch to enter his own Sutherland. Lelouch and his soldier stood at the door, and he watched as the brainwashed officer pulled out a radio and spoke into it. A few moments later, Lelouch also spoke into the radio, his face grim and hinting at fear, but as soon as the officer took the radio away, that fear broke away just like it was another mask.

Lelouch boarded his own Sutherland and Evrard closed the cockpit and turned the metal war-machine on. The panels hummed to life and with a flick of a switch, the screen flickered as the eye-sphere transmitted the image of the streets before him. To his side, Lelouch's Sutherland rose from its kneeling position and turned to head into the streets. Evrard moved to copy, but took one last look at the Britannian officer first. The man saluted Lelouch's departing Sutherland, then withdrew a gun from his waistband and casually shot himself in the skull.

Evrard smiled viciously as he pulled away and joined Lelouch on the roads.

ZZZZZ

Lelouch read the screens popping up on his monitor quickly, some of them barely flashing on-screen before he finished and moved onto the next one. Each of them told the same story, though; even in knightmares, he and Evrard were trapped in Shinjuku, surrounded by an entire army of Britannian soldiers under Prince Clovis' command. The unit map alone reported at least 50 assembled tanks and knightmare units, and that didn't take into account the foot soldiers Britannia had scurrying about, killing the Japanese civilians.

_This isn't a good situation, but it's not impossible._ Lelouch groused and pulled out his cell phone. The last call message displayed Shirley's name and number, from when it had nearly gotten both of them killed in the warehouse. He dialed and waited for her to pick up. _Time for some information._

After a few rings, Shirley picked up and Lelouch relaxed just a little. "Shirley, I-"

"Lulu, how dare you take Evrard out gambling! And don't try to deny it; Rivalz told me all about your chess match! How dare you lie to me like that!"

Lelouch grimaced and pulled the phone away from his ear. _Rivalz, you idiot._ He tried to start again, but Shirley was still in the middle of a tirade. "-better not have him in trouble, Lulu. I asked because I thought it was for Nunna, but then I find out you're wasting your time gambling again and getting Evrard involved-"

"Shirley!" Lelouch shouted, and Shirley actually stopped. He felt a twinge of guilt, but waved it off. He needed information to help keep the boyfriend she was ranting about _alive_, so a little rudeness was necessary. "Listen, Evrard and I need your help. Find a T.V. and check the news about Shinjuku, and please hurry."

He tapped his foot impatiently on the cockpit floor while she found one. It was nerve-wracking to just be standing behind a building for cover in the middle of a massacre. One wrong step, or even one foul fit of fate, and they could be dead, just like the girl. Just like Suzaku. "…Well?"

"They're saying it's closed off because of traffic problems. Lulu, what's going on? Are you two okay?" No, they were certainly not okay, not with the military keeping the entire ghetto under blackout until they'd killed any witnesses. Lelouch scowled. It was still a bad situation, but it made their options a little clearer now that he knew for sure what they were doing. His eye-sphere locked onto a broken chess set in the street, and the image sparked the beginnings of an idea in his mind. _If I had the pieces, then maybe…_ "…Can I talk to Evrard, please?"

"He's…busy, Shirley. Look, we're both okay. We just ran into a little trouble, but we're getting out of it. Don't worry. Tell Nunnally that I'll be home late tonight, alri-"

"Lelouch! Follow me!"

"That was Evrard! Lulu, let-" Lelouch snapped the phone shut. He'd worry about Shirley being upset later, when Evrard wasn't racing from behind their cover onto an open road. He caught up and noticed what had attracted Evrard's attention. A one-armed Glasgow knightmare frame, very similar to, if not exactly, the one that the red-haired terrorist girl had manned, was being chased by two military Sutherlands much like their own.

"Fuckin' military bastards!" Evrard's voice was vicious, more a snarl than anything else. "Let's see you take a fight on equal grounds!"

One of the Sutherlands slowed and turned around. Lelouch's radio crackled a bit, then produced a woman's voice clearly. "Back-up? Good, lend your aid and Lord Jeremiah and the Purist Faction will not forget it!"

"Understood!" Lelouch answered, cutting off Evrard's violent response before it could come out. The woman's Sutherland turned back and continued chasing the Glasgow. Lelouch opened his comm. link to Evrard's Sutherland and waited.

"…Fuck. What's your plan, Lelouch?" At least Evrard didn't sound too upset with him. That made this easier.

"Follow them, but wait for my signal to attack." Lelouch veered off to the side and started for a building that his map display had in its sights. It would work perfectly for what he was about to do. "We'll take those Purist Faction soldiers out and prepare our counter-attack in one move."

"Tch. Fine, let's do it."

Lelouch smiled and grabbed the radio he'd picked up from the terrorists' truck way back in the beginning of the whole mess. He'd been planning on using it as a means of buying their safety from the military, but with how things had proceeded. It would serve a new purpose.

"Glasgow woman, take the west entrance and use the tracks." Lelouch grinned, feeling the surge of power and confidence he'd felt when the soldiers had been forced to obey him. He'd been dragged into this pointless skirmish of Clovis', and payback was the perfect way to make the Britannian forces pay for what they'd done. "If you want to win, then obey me."

ZZZZZ

Still fuming, Evrard followed the two Purist Sutherlands in their chase of the red Glasgow. It was infuriating to have to endure working alongside such slaughterers, but even from how short a time he'd known Lelouch, Evrard could tell that the other was by far the better strategist. If Lelouch told him to wait for a better chance to strike, then he'd wait. At least the controls for knightmare frames weren't stupidly difficult to learn. He followed the other frames up onto a set of train tracks with ease, then spotted the incoming train just a short distance in front of the fleeing Glasgow.

_What's your plan, Lelouch? Hell, what's your signal supposed to be?_ Evrard scowled. Ahead, the Glasgow leapt onto the train, and as the lead Sutherland moved to stop the train, he realized what the plan was. The train slowed to a crawl in the hand of the male Purist's Sutherland and the female Purist jumped from the tracks onto the train's top in pursuit of the Glasgow. Evrard gripped the controls of his knightmare and laughed with cruel joy when Lelouch's slash harkens shot out from a nearby building and smashed into the woman's Sutherland, breaking its eye-sphere and knocking it off the bridge.

"Now!" Lelouch commanded from his radio, and as the male Purist roared in rage at Lelouch's knightmare, Evrard charged. He accelerated and tackled the Britannian knightmare frame, lashing out with his own Sutherland's Stun Tonfas at both legs while Lelouch fired his rifle from the building. The tonfas smashed one leg's land-spinner clean off, while the other leg was mangled and bent too far to function, and within seconds, the man's Sutherland crumpled to the ground in a heap of metal. The ejection function kicked in and launched the man's cockpit away from the tracks, but by then, Evrard had moved on to check on the Glasgow.

"Don't mention our names if you can help it, Evrard." He watched Lelouch's frame disappear back inside the darkness of the building. "We still don't know if we can trust them with our identities."

"Understood," Evrard replied. He moved his eye-sphere to take in the Glasgow's status. The older knightmare looked like shit. Even if it didn't have a missing arm and numerous bullet marks all over, he doubted the thing would've looked good. He configured his radio to adjust to the terrorists' frequency and hailed the Glasgow's pilot. "Hey, you alright there, Red?"

The Glasgow turned and faced his Sutherland, but kept silent for a few seconds. Evrard couldn't blame her; just moments ago, she'd been chased by three such Sutherlands, not knowing if death would take her or not. "Y-Yes! I'm fine." Oh, so it was the red-haired girl from before. "Who are you, though? How the hell did you get a Sutherland?"

"Hey, calm down, huh?" Evrard groused, looking around for Lelouch. It seemed like he didn't plan on joining them. "My pal and I are just some folks the military pissed off by getting us involved in this shit. We got some Sutherlands from some assholes trying to pick a fight, so we decided to help you guys out, a'ight?"

"You guys stole them right out of Brit hands?" The terrorist actually sounded impressed. He wasn't sure if that was the best thing for them right now, but it was better than her being suspicious, at least while she was still in a functioning, if garbage, knightmare frame.

"Hey, Kallen! Thank goodness, you're safe!"

A group of Japanese men and women approached. Evrard tensed at the sight of their weapons, knowing full well that an aimed rocket could cause his cockpit to explode, but he relaxed a bit when he saw their faces. None of them looked ready to shoot him, and most of them were smiling in what looked like relief at the red Glasgow.

One of them, a man with loose, black hair and a headband, waved his radio at the two of them. "Your friend there mind letting us in already? Yoshida and I came here like the voice said."

Evrard paused and mulled it over. He didn't know why Lelouch wanted the terrorists all on the bridge, let alone what sort of plan he could've thought up in the short time between the chase and now. "…Let's ask him, instead." He flipped his radio off and used the personal comm. link between the two Sutherlands. "How 'bout it, Lelouch?"

"I summoned you all here to receive my gifts, your tools for victory." Lelouch's voice crackled over the terrorist radio channel, cold, but confident. Evrard chuckled at the look of shock that spread across the faces of the terrorists. Maybe they hadn't really expected him to get results? "Fresh Sutherlands, IFF's wiped clean, as well as energy fillers and spare parts. All yours to use, provided you follow my orders."

As the terrorists clamored over the contents of the train, Evrard returned to his direct link to Lelouch. "Looks like you've evened the odds." It would be wrong to say he was impressed; what Lelouch had done was damn intimidating. Evrard knew he'd broken out of cover to help the Glasgow in a flash, leaving Lelouch with only the time between that and the chase to plan for the Sutherlands, as well as contacting the terrorists. Lelouch was damn scary to think that quickly, that accurately "What's next, miracle maker?"

"It should be obvious, Evrard." Lelouch laughed, sounding assured and relaxed, even in the hellhole they'd almost died in. "I'll create a miracle, and turn this massacre right on Clovis' head!"


	3. Chapter 3

A.N. Some of the first major deviations start here. You can probably note the biggest one. I thought I had something to say here, but it's gone now.

A.N. 2. Fuck reaching that 20k words filter mark. Next chapter will do it.

ZZZZZ

_A miracle…I wonder, with the pieces I've assembled, can I truly make one happen?_

Trapped in a somber mood despite his earlier excitement, Lelouch poured over the maps and screens he planned to use against Clovis' forces. He wasn't concerned with the battle itself; just from what he'd seen from the Glasgow and Evrard's ruthless dismantling of the Purist Sutherland, he knew he could command a victory without the extra Sutherlands he'd gained with the other terrorists. Provided the rest of them listened to his orders throughout the skirmishes, there was no doubt that he would easily lead them to trounce Clovis and his wasted, bloated army.

The real trouble was dealing with Clovis himself. Lelouch knew enough of his half-brother from their shared childhood to understand how the older man dealt with losing. Worse than that, he also knew just how callous and uncaring Clovis could be towards the Japanese people. Just beating him and shaming him in this battle would cause more damage than retreating like cowards. When he beat Clovis in the past, the other would cause such a fit, falling into moods of sullen childishness until he came back, fully prepared with a new plan to throw at Lelouch's wits.

_Clovis, you have no right to waste any more lives for your pride!_ Lelouch scowled, gripping the black king's chess piece he'd kept from his match. He knew full well that Clovis would launch raid after raid in search of the one who had beaten him, not stopping until he'd either won, or been forced to stop. Lelouch also knew that under no circumstances, especially with his newfound power to command obedience, would he ever lose to Clovis again, which left stopping his half-brother. He didn't like it, but deep inside, a voice he'd hoped to forget whispered in his ear.

_This is our chance! Find out who killed her. Make Clovis speak. Make him admit the truth! And then-!_

Eyes half-lidded in thought, Lelouch propped the black king piece atop his monitor and pressed his finger against its crown. _In the end, a victory is gained through one thing—_ He pushed the chess piece lightly, and with just a small amount of force, it fell from his monitor and clattered on floor of the cockpit. He knew what he needed to do, what move he needed to make to obtain what he wanted, especially given the steps he'd already laid in place.

_Checkmate._

ZZZZZ

"Look, guys, all I'm sayin' is, these knightmares' IFF's are wiped, these guys know our radio code, and they just happened to already be in Sutherlands." An annoyingly loud and ominously familiar complaining brought Evrard out of his pseudo-meditative rest in his cockpit. It was coming from the shared radio between the Sutherlands. He tuned the radio to remove any interference static, then leaned back in his seat to wait. "There ain't no reason to be trustin' them yet, that's all!"

Evrard groaned and slammed backwards into his seat, pressing his fingers against his forehead to stave off the headache he _knew_ was coming. He knew exactly who that whining belonged to, but he _seriously_ didn't want to deal with him. After everything that had happened, after damn near getting killed by Britannian soldiers who were after the girl the terrorists had stolen, he still had to deal with-

"And who's the one who screwed up the plan in the first place?" The Glasgow woman's voice shot across the radio, cutting off whatever _he_ was about to say next. She sounded upset, but with a hint of teasing. "The 'totally foolproof plan only a brain-dead Brit could screw up'?"

"Er…"

"Yeah!" Another voice, this one male, joined in. "And who was it that complained about having the simplest task out of all of us?"

"You mean the one where all he had to do was distract the guards from seeing us with the canister?"

"That's right." The male voice hummed a little tune. "So who was it that had the easiest task and _still_ got us into this mess in the first place?"

"…Ugh, fuckin' Tamaki!" Evrard sighed, feeling the last of his good luck just flying away. It made perfect sense that the reason he and Lelouch had gotten caught up in all this shit was because of _Tamaki_, of all people.

"That's right! Tamaki-wait, was that the Sutherland guy?" A moment of silence took over the radio feed.

"What the hell?" Tamaki's shriek was so painful. If there was anything worse than listening to him brag, it was listening to him complain. "How the hell do you know my name, bastard? You some kinda Brit spy?"

A cluster of movement caught by his eye-sphere confirmed that the other Sutherlands manned by the terrorists were now pointing their guns at him. _Fuckin' Tamaki._ "No, idiot." Evrard grumbled, not even bothering to go for his weapons. They'd gun him down at such a short distance before he could even try anything. "I wouldn't need to be a spy for how loud you were showing off to that brainless prostitute last night, Tamaki. The walls between our apartments aren't that thick."

"…Oh shit, Evrard?" Why the hell did Tamaki have to sound that shocked. Was he _really_ that odd, a Britannian who would side with the Japanese? After a moment, Evrard's face darkened in a glower when he reminded himself that he _was_. "Oh, da~amn, man! I can't believe a schoolboy like you got caught up in this shit! You get stuck out here 'cause yer girlfriend sent you to pick up her tampons, kid?"

"Piss off, Tamaki! According to your pals here, it's your goddamn fault I'm even here!" Evrard snarked and took solace in the sputter that came through the radio. At least pissing off Tamaki was still an option. "Seriously, you blab your entire plan to a _hooker_ of all people, and you still can't do your part right?"

"Hey, shut up, man! I didn't tell her shit 'bout the real plan!"

"Oh, Tamaki-sama!" Evrard threw his voice up in a fake falsetto. "You're really going to, like, steal a top secret weapon from the Britannians tomorrow morning? You're so~o brave! Are you really the leader of a rebellion group?"

A dead silence followed Evrard's mimicry. Inside his own cockpit, Evrard entertained the possibility that they were all glaring at Tamaki at the moment.

"F-Fuck you! At least I ain't a Brit pig all dressed up in a suit!"

"Better than a goddamn Japanese monkey too stupid to keep his mouth shut!"

"You little-" Tamaki sputtered again, then the sound of a hatch opening filtered through the radio channel. "You come say that to my face! I'll remind you to respect your sempai, asshole!"

"Bring it on, bitch! I'll rip that ratty goatee right off your fa-"

"That's enough, you two!" The voice of the terrorists' leader, the black-haired man from before, cut Evrard off before he could finish and open his own hatch. "Both of you sit down and behave this instant!" Evrard scowled at the radio, trying to send his violent thoughts through it right at Tamaki's face. Still, he pulled his hatch shut, and a few seconds later, he heard the same sound from Tamaki's cockpit. "That's better. Now, Tamaki; do you…_know_ this guy who helped Kallen?"

"…Tch, yeah. He's my smart-assed neighbor in my apartment complex." Tamaki admitted, with just a bit of spite. Evrard tensed. Whatever Tamaki told them next would probably determine if he got out of this without friendly fire bullet holes. "He's a little shit, but…fuck, he ain't never been a Brit to me. He's alright; just got a shitty mouth. He's helped me outta trouble a few times, too."

The guns of the Sutherlands lowered and Evrard breathed a quick sigh of relief. There'd been far too many guns shoved in his direction for his comfort today, and he really didn't want to join the green-haired girl in being a corpse. He looked over at her body, off in the corner of his cockpit. Other than the dried bullet-hole in her forehead, she barely even looked like she wasn't just sleeping. Definitely not how he wanted to end the day.

"So your name is Evrard?" It was the leader again. "My name is Ohgi. Thank you, and your friend, for helping Kallen, and for helping Tamaki in the past."

Evrard chuckled into the radio and leaned back again. "Ah…don't worry 'bout it. Tamaki's…annoying-" "Hey!" "-but…he's loyal. He's picked fights he wasn't a part of to back me up before, so it's equal."

"If you're all satisfied…" Lelouch's voice cut through the chatter. Instantly, Evrard sat straight in attention, and from the faint rustling through the radio, everyone else did, too. "Then, Q-1, please proceed forward as per instructions and lead them in. Everyone else, get ready! It's time to turn this fight around!"

ZZZZZ

She could feel the adrenalin pumping through her as she dashed into the sights of the Britannian knightmares. It was a different rush from minutes before, when she'd lost an arm and had three—_Well, only two, really, I guess—_Sutherlands about to kill her. Now it was the rush of excitement, of knowing that she wasn't just running for her life, but she was leading Clovis' precious army into a trap that would knock all of them on their pompous asses.

"Now, shoot them through the walls!"

Kallen Kouzuki grinned at the sound of gunfire being followed by the ejection of two cockpits. That was much better than being forced to run around like rats. Now, they had equal weapons to face off against the Britannians, and there was no way in hell she'd let the chance slip through their fingers!

"H-1, P-5, accompany Q-1 and proceed forward 30 meters. Two will be behind a wall, and another two will be opposite them."

Two Sutherlands pulled up on either side of her Glasgow, weapons ready. The one on her left had its Knightmare Assault Rifle aimed ahead, while the one on her right had forgone any weapons other than the Stun Tonfas. Both nodded at her and let her take the lead, progressing forward until they reached the wall the mysterious voice had mentioned.

"Alright, Evrard! What'dya say we show Kallen how we do it?" Tamaki crowed from the Sutherland on her left, rushing forward and blasting through the wall with a hail of bullets.

"Tch, always runnin' your mouth, Tamaki."

The right Sutherland, Evrard's, apparently, joined her Glasgow and together they pushed around the wall, charging straight into two unsuspecting Sutherlands. Kallen let loose a battle cry and smashed her replacement arm's tonfa into her target's eye-sphere, smashing it in a single blow. She followed up with a kick to its landspinner that forced it to its knees, and a tonfa smash finisher that crushed its dominant arm, causing the pilot to eject before he could take more.

At her side, Evrard's Sutherland didn't even bother with the eyesphere. It charged the enemy knightmare and shoved it off-balance, then slammed both Stun Tonfa down on each leg in two crushing blows that shattered the Sutherland's knees. As the knightmare's torso fell to the ground, Evrard raised both Tonfa and slammed them down on its chest, causing a brutal crunching noise to rip through the air. Unlike hers, the ejection system in Evrard's target didn't kick in.

"Excellent job." The mysterious voice piped in, bringing Kallen's focus back. "Now, proceed west for another 20 meters and ambush the two units hiding atop the building roof."

"Yeah, yeah, we got it, man!" Tamaki emerged from behind the wall and turned his knightmare to admire the two he'd shot down. He cackled, in that annoying way he did when he acted overconfident. "See that? That's two for me, and only one each for you two! Guess you'd better start callin' me sempai from now on."

"When knightmares fly, Tamaki." Evrard scoffed from his Sutherland, already moving. "Nice moves, Kouzuki. I can see why you pilot that Glasgow."

"Thanks!" Kallen grinned, then laughed when Tamaki started whining about disrespect. This was where she belonged. She wasn't some stuffy, Britannian rich girl destined to get married off and be some trophy gossiper. She was Kouzuki Kallen, one of the fighters for Japan's freedom! Being out on the battlefield, laughing with comrades…_This is way better than acting like an invalid at Ashford._ "Let's get 'em!"

ZZZZZ

"P-1, P-2, P-3, and P-4: Once you finish there, move back 10 meters and wait for a squad of four to approach. Ambush them."

"Understood." Ohgi stared at his radio quietly for a few moments. It was odd, frighteningly so, how quickly their situation had changed from being hunted down to fighting back. He had no idea how their mysterious benefactor had obtained a train of Sutherlands, unmarked even, or even _why_ he and the Evrard boy were helping them. All the same, though, there wasn't time to waste wondering why. Britannia had too much of an obvious advantage over them to waste time tricking them. "Yoshida, take Inoue and take the left side. Sugiyama and I have the right."

"You got it, Ohgi!" He watched Yoshida and Inoue take their positions behind the corner of a building before he moved to join Sugiyama. The waiting was the worst part. There was nothing to do until the enemy arrived but think, and the only things he could think about were the lives lost already and the two allies he hoped that they'd just gained.

"Ohgi…"

"Yeah, Sugiyama?" Ahead, in the clearing they'd just occupied, the first of the Britannian knightmare frames pulled into view. He raised his own Sutherland's hand slightly, readying the others. "What is it?"

"Can we really trust those two?" Ohgi paused, but not long enough to lose focus. They both knew that the mysterious voice was listening over the radio, and odds were, so was the Evrard boy. They both knew, which meant Sugiyama had to have intended it. Did he really distrust them so badly? For a moment, Ohgi wondered if he simply didn't distrust them enough. "Tamaki already told us that one of them is a Britannian. Why would he be helping us, the 'terrorists'?"

The last of the enemy pulled into the clearing, and Ohgi acted on experience rather than instinct, dropping his hand and pulling up his KA Rifle instead. Yoshida and Inoue did the same from the other side, and soon, the pinned in Britannian frames started falling. "Honestly, I don't know, Sugiyama." One of the knightmares broke free and tried to run away, but a charge and a Stun Tonfa from Yoshida brought him down to join the rest of the enemy Sutherlands. "But…"

"Yeah?"

"At the very least, our vocal helper is concerned about getting his friend out of here alive, but he could've done that without bringing us into it." It was true. They could have simply broken free from the encirclement by pretending to be Britannian soldiers, and then they'd have been free of the entire mess. Could they be an ulterior motive behind helping them? Ohgi couldn't think of anything anyone would gain from manipulating them into _beating_ the army of Prince Clovis, but that didn't meant there wasn't one. "Instead, he chose to help Kallen, and gave us these weapons to fight back against the Britannians. He's…" Ohgi paused, staring at the collapsed building that had probably been an apartment. "…he's trusting us to fight for him, just like we're trusting him to get us out of here alive."

The others gathered around his Sutherland, and together, they started moving. "Whoever he is, he's taking a huge risk helping us like this. So, in return, I'm going to risk putting my faith…and our lives, in his hands."

The radio crackled with static for a short while, then hissed. "…Thank you."

ZZZZZ

Lelouch absently watched as blue blips continued to disappear from his radar. Occasionally, he'd give out another set of orders or locations and his three groups of rogue Sutherlands would crush their targets. Ohgi's group of four was making good progress, better than his C-group's, but he attributed that more to his own tactics and Ohgi's calm nature than piloting skill. There were good, but they couldn't compare to Kallen's group when it came to sheer efficiency. Tamaki alone proved average, but working alongside both Evrard and Kallen, who had taken to quick, astoundingly smooth incapacitation of their targets, his skills were excelling.

The remaining blips on his radar consisted of the last stragglers out in the field and the encirclement around Clovis' personal mobile base. _There's only five possible moves left, Clovis, and…_ Movement caught his eye. He watched impassively as a full squad from Clovis' encirclement broke free and the remaining field units moved to band around it. Practically half of Clovis' remaining forces now charged forward against Lelouch's rogues that they couldn't even see. _…you choose the most idiotic option possible._

Lelouch scowled with open scorn at the radar's display of Clovis' forces. There had been a certain level of lenience he'd been willing to lend to Clovis; a sort of handicap much like he'd given in their chess matches as children. He'd even considered having his Japanese Sutherlands capture Clovis for whatever ransom purpose they saw fit, but now? _Clovis, now more than ever, you don't deserve the loyalty of the lives you waste!_ Lelouch gnashed his teeth, but found his composure and grabbed his radio.

"Q-1, are these maps of the area correct?"

"Yeah! Rghg, die, you bastard!" A clash of metal on metal overtook the radio noise, but quickly faded. "Thanks, Tamaki! And yeah, but they're really old…there's none of the current landmarks!"

"That will be fine." Lelouch studied the radar and the map in tandem, running simulations in his mind. "…Everyone, get below through the subway tunnel entrances. P-1 through P-4, there is one immediately to the west of your location. Q-1, H-1, P-5, proceed 10 meters, and on the right."

"Got it!"

The blue units on his radar began to swarm the center location on the map from all sides, looking all the more like hungry jackals to Lelouch. He twirled the black king's piece in his fingers, mind fading back to Ohgi's words from earlier. _…because I trust them to obey my orders, they trust me with their lives. Can…I truly consider them pawns, then?_ Wouldn't doing so make him just as bad as Clovis, or, even worse, as bad as the _Emperor_? To just use and discard people once their uses had been consumed. It would be easier, though, to use these Japanese to get to Clovis long enough to get his answers. They would probably even get away on their own, but…

_No!_

Lelouch's fingers tightened around the black king, then slackened. The chess piece fell from his grip onto the floor of his cockpit, just as the last of the blue Sutherland blips on his radar entered the shock radius. "Is everyone ready?" He wasn't anything like his father. These people trusted him with their very lives, just because he offered them hope unlike anything they'd ever considered. All of them, even Evrard, were people he'd just barely met hours ago, but they were willing to extend their trust to him even so. "Good. Then for your faith in me, let me give you this undeniable victory over Britannia! Fire now, Q-1!"

At first, the radar continued to display the enemy as though nothing had happened, but after a few seconds passed, the first flashing display of LOST lit up Lelouch's screen. It was quickly followed by another, and another, and then several more again and again as the cave-in caused by Q-1's underground collapse swallowed knightmares, tanks and soldiers whole. In a heartbeat, Clovis massive attack force of half of his total units was completely and utterly wiped out, and Lelouch didn't even try hiding his victorious smirk.

"And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you topple a Britannian prince's forces."

ZZZZZ

Despite the agony of a recovering bullet wound through his back and ribs, Suzaku Kururugi refused to let the pain break his determination. Around him, the voices of the various techs and assistants assigned to Lloyd Asplund, the scientist responsible for the somewhat chafing piloting suit he was wearing, and the golden and white knightmare, _Lancelot, Lloyd called it,_ chimed in with various statuses that he honestly didn't care about. Prince Clovis had approved the launch of the Lancelot, and thanks to Fate, he had been chosen to be its debut pilot.

More importantly, it gave him the chance to put an end to all of the fighting and the senseless sacrifice of lives. He still didn't know if Lelouch or his friend had survived, or what had happened to the poison gas girl, but the reports of the soldiers responsible for his gunshot being dead filled him with hope. If the terrorists had taken Lelouch and the others hostage, it left him with a chance, a chance he could properly take advantage of thanks to the Lancelot.

_Lelouch…_ Suzaku groused, leaning into position as the landspinners detracted from the Lancelot's legs and began obeying his hold on the accelerator. The final anchors released, and Suzaku groaned in slight pain as the sudden, violent launch from the pad sent him racing into the streets of Shinjuku faster than he'd ever imagined possible. Within seconds, literally seconds, he found one of the terrorists in an unmarked, clearly stolen Sutherland. He lashed out with the Lancelot's foot and kicked upwards, smashing the Sutherland's eyesphere clean off, and causing enough of a violent reaction to force the knightmare's cockpit ejection process.

_I promise, Lelouch! _Suzaku remained focused and moved onto the next terrorist, even as he gushed over how smoothly the Lancelot controlled on the inside. The machine seemed to move with him, rather than at his command, and despite the constant wearing at his side and back, he couldn't feel any of the strain that Cecile had been talking about plaguing their past 'Devicers'. He spun and smashed another terrorist knightmare's arm off, then struck its chest until the ejection system engaged. Another two Sutherlands fell to the MVS sword Lloyd had practically commanded him to test, and when the two machines collapsed under their own weight, Suzaku understood why.

_With this power, I will find you. No matter what…_

The eyespheres on the Lancelot's chest opened and recorded with a flick of his thumb, revealing a knightmare's heat source hiding within an abandoned, ruined building. With it alone, and in such a strange place, Suzaku knew it had to be one of the terrorists' leaders. He moved the Lancelot along, and with more grace than he'd ever imagined possible, the Lancelot fired one of its Slash Harkens into the building and began to ascend it just as fast as it had moved on the ground. In a matter of seconds, Suzaku had reached the Sutherland's hiding place and smashed it out into the open air with a brutal side-kick.

To his relief, the ejection function engaged, sending the pilot's cockpit over near the mobile base of Prince Clovis. There, the terrorists would be apprehended by the proper authorities, and hopefully, without their leader remaining, the other terrorists would just give up.

ZZZZZ

"What?" Lelouch's panicked cry almost forced Evrard into a dead stop. "He's found me! I'm ejecting, so the rest of y-Zzzt!"

"Lelouch?" Evrard snarled and kicked his Sutherland into full gear. His eyesphere was kept wide open, scanning the ruins of Shinjuku for any sign of Lelouch's cockpit or the white knightmare. "Damn it, Lelouch, answer me!" Silence was his only response for a short moment, before panicked chatter from the rest of the terrorists started filtering in. Evrard smashed his fist into one of his control panels. "Shit!"

It wasn't right. He and Lelouch had gotten through the worst of it already since getting trapped in the truck. They'd survived terrorist crashes, getting caught by the Britannian military _twice_, and even turned around a one-sided massacre into a proper fight for the Japanese, and Lelouch was just taken out like nothing by some wonder knightmare? After all that struggle, and with their victory just in sight, some secret toy of Clovis' forces saw fit to come in and fuck it all up?

"Bullshit!" Evrard swore, cutting off someone's suggestion of retreating. At his side, Kallen's Glasgow and Tamaki's Sutherland kept up with his speed. The suggestion hadn't come from either of them. "Everyone, form up on me! If this white knight asshole wants to fight, then he has to fight on _our_ terms! Ohgi!" Static hissed through the radio. "I'm still here!" "We're still close by the train where we started. Join up with us! If the knightmare shows up, don't bother fighting! Just shot around it and slow it down until you get here!"

"Alright! We'll be right there, so be careful!"

A flash of movement on his eyesphere screen forced Evrard to slam on his brakes. Leaping from one of the taller, broken buildings was a knightmare that looked different from a Sutherland. It was white and gold, and as it shot its Slash Harken into one of the nearby buildings leading to Ohgi's area, Evrard hissed and flipped open his radio again.

"Tamaki, look up and ready your rifle." There was no mistake. That white bastard had to be the one that had taken out a third of them already. He was the one that might've killed Lelouch! "Don't even bother to aim. Just shoot him and get his attention."

"Uh…you sure, man? Maybe he hasn't seen anyone yet."

"Trust me, Tamaki." He gestured to Kallen and pointed to a nearby roof. Once she was moving, he took off for another one. "Just get him over here and take cover. I'll show this asshole just why his shiny knightmare doesn't belong in the streets of Shinjuku Ghetto!"

ZZZZZ

"Escort me to Prince Clovis' mobile base, soldier. I have important business with the Prince."

"Yes, my lord!"

Lelouch sighed and rubbed his shoulder to work out the kink. The arrival of the white knightmare was completely unexpected, and as a result, he'd been thrown out of the battlefield. He was slightly worried about the forces he'd left behind; just after committing to give them victory, and he'd been snatched away from them, leaving them practically blind in the field? _Too bad for you, white knight, but I'm not out of the battle yet!_ Just because he'd been ejected from the field of battle itself didn't mean he still couldn't lend a hand to his forces.

The tank ride escort to Clovis' mobile base was made somewhat more tolerable by using his power of control on the soldiers, but it still took far too many minutes for his patience. Each moment spent not actually dealing with Clovis was another moment that Evrard and the others were forced to face off against Clovis' pathetic, but still numerous forces. By the time he'd been escorted to the back doors, Lelouch's temper had become foul, and the fact that he uniform he'd acquired from one of his soldiers was the wrong size didn't help matters.

The first soldier who'd found him saluted once they reached the doors, but when Lelouch began to inspect the PA system instead of him, he frowned and stared at Lelouch with shock. A suspicious look entered his eyes, and he slowly brought his hand down to the gun at his hip.

"Who…who the hell are you? How did you get this far?"

_Ugh, wasteful idiot. _"Forget you ever saw me here." Lelouch commanded, bringing his power to the surface once more.

To his shock, the soldier didn't change his stance. If anything, he grew more agitated. "I don't think so, kid. Now, who the _hell_ are you, and how-"

"Kill him!" Lelouch commanded his second soldier, one from the tank he'd simply told to obey him. A short flare and a burst of bullets ended the first soldier's life, splattering blood against the wall of the mobile base. Lelouch panted and stared at the falling body of the first soldier in shock. What had happened? Why didn't his power force the soldier to obey-_Of course. Direct eye contact, and now it only works once per target. _He glanced at the other soldier, who continued to wait with red-rimmed eyes. _…I suppose the command to obey me has no duration, while specific commands last until the objective is fulfilled. Agh, what other limitations are there?_

Lelouch pressed the relay code he'd obtained from the Britannian captain back at the warehouse. It would connect him directly to Prince Clovis' communications center. "This is Private Alan Spacer, reporting to Prince Clovis from the Shinjuku recovery team, sir."

"…Spacer? Oh, of course!" Clovis' smooth, normally charming voice sounded nervous. It was a wonderful feeling for Lelouch to know he'd caused that. He'd be doing worse soon enough, too. "Spacer, regarding your report earlier…are you certain?"

"Yes, sir." Lelouch dropped his voice to a stage whisper, working as hard as possible to stifle his laughter. "The target distinctly mentioned several names, including General Bartley's."

"I see…" The anguish and paranoia he could _feel_ from across the line was perfect. "Proceed inside to my chamber, then. And bring the objective with you. We will not be interrupted."

Lelouch smirked as the locked door suddenly slid open, granting him access into the mobile base. He turned around and gestured to remaining soldier, who continued to wait for orders. "Give me your helmet. Then return to your tank and kill your fellow soldiers. Then kill yourself."

"Yes, my lord!"

After giving Lelouch his helmet, the soldier retreated to his tank. Lelouch donned the helmet and smiled to himself as the sounds of short bursts of gunfire followed him into the mobile base. Despite being a back entrance, it was actually a very short distance between the door and Clovis' command center. It was obvious which room was his goal, given that a handful of decorated Britannians, including a very distressed General Bartley, stood outside the room's double doors. They each looked nervous and confused, and once Lelouch approached, they honed in and watched his every movement.

Lelouch strode past them all the way to the double doors leading to Clovis before he paused and turned around. With a flourished movement, he flicked his helmet's visor up away from his eyes and smirked at the assembled generals and advisors. A surge of power ran through his body, lighting up his eye with a crimson glow.

"Gentlemen, you were dismissed because Prince Clovis madly accused one of his staff of treason, and for the next twenty minutes, you are going to ignore everything you hear, and forget everything you've witnessed. You never saw me, and in fact, you never saw anyone enter or leave this room after you." He jauntily turned and opened one of the doors. "Good day."

Inside the command center, Lelouch noted everything around him. The scattered array of Clovis' remaining forces on the holographic battle projector, the lack of alternative entrances to the room save the one he'd just come through, and Clovis himself, sitting atop his elevated throne, a privileged peacock amidst the squabbling pigs. He sneered underneath his helmet at the wasted extravagance of a single man who had thrown away so many lives for his own pride.

"Your Highness, I have arrived." Clovis ceased tapping his foot at Lelouch's announcement and turned to face him. With his eyes narrowed with nervousness and a subtle twitch to his lips, Clovis looked nothing like his media-fabricated image. He looked cornered, frightened, like a rat. _And I will be the cat that ends your life, dear Brother._

"Good, Spacer. You and your commander were wise to inform me of the traitors in my own advisors." Lelouch bit back his laugh at such an obvious lie. Upon realizing that Clovis had been after the dead girl all along, it had been child's play to use his power to have the Britannian captain lie to Clovis about a plot to shame him out of his standing with the family. The names of Clovis' advisors were public knowledge, after all, and Clovis' own natural paranoia as a member of royalty were easy tools to manipulate. "Wait…where is the girl, Spacer? You said you had obtained the objective!"

"And I have, Your Highness!" Lelouch pulled out a handgun from his waistband and casually pointed it at Clovis. The prince's eyes widened comically, making him look even more like a stunned fish than ever, and he scrambled backwards in his seat. "The entire time, from your invasion of Shinjuku, to my counter-attack minutes ago, all to this very moment, when I would have you right in my grasp, Prince Clovis. You are my objective, and I have cleared all conditions to reach you."

"Help! Bartley! Help!" Clovis screamed, but Lelouch just laughed. _No one will come to your aid now, Brother. _"Damn you, worthless advisors! Help me!"

Lelouch pulled the trigger of his gun and bullet imbedded itself in the wall near Clovis' head. Clovis yelped and fell back into his seat again, staring fearfully at Lelouch's masked face. "W-What do you want, traitor?"

"First off, Prince Clovis, I'd like you to send your forces a little message." Lelouch gestured towards the P.A. system in Clovis' throne with his gun. "After that…" He grinned, feeling the power within waiting to be used again. "…We'll reminisce over old times."

ZZZZZ

Suzaku groaned as another barrage of bullets from both sides forced him to raise both Blaze Luminous shields. He wasn't sure how he'd been tricked into his situation, but even as their enemy, Suzaku had to commend the terrorists for how they'd pinned him in. Even at the very start, when he thought he'd found a lone straggler trying to shoot him, all he'd accomplished was leaping into an ambush. A Glasgow and a Sutherland had smashed his landspinners on both legs, leaving him without the smooth, perfect speed he'd enjoyed moments before.

Even without the landspinners, he'd still kept fighting, and the Lancelot had proved itself more than a match even without its speed. It had been harder, but he'd still be able to launch himself at the terrorist knightmares, but even with his control back, they constantly worked together so that every time he tried to attack one, the other two dealt enough damage to the Lancelot that he had to give up the attack. Even worse, one of the Sutherlands' pilots was just…intimidating. He didn't know why, but every time _that_ one Sutherland advanced towards him, Suzaku felt doubt and constantly second-guessed himself, resulting in more and more losses.

Eventually, they'd even managed to take away most of his mobility by breaking the ground beneath them and dodging one of his leaps. He'd crashed into the underground tunnels and only his reflexes and the burning drive to not fail Lelouch kept the Lancelot from losing its head to one of the Sutherlands. Underground, he'd barely enough room to fight, with the ceiling far too low and dangerously weak to swing the MVS blades Lloyd loved, and nowhere near enough safe room to fire his rifle. When he'd tried to escape through the way out, another _four_ Sutherlands had pinned him in and forced him back with repeated gunfire.

"Damn…ugh, terrorists!" Suzaku hissed. The wound at his side was even worse now, and blood stained the side of his uniform dark. Even so, he couldn't stop now. If he gave up, the terrorists would simply march over Prince Clovis, and worse, he would lose any chance of saving Lelouch there might have been. He grit his teeth and gripped his controls again. _Still, I'm running out of power…the Blaze Luminous can barely hold up! If this keeps up, I won't be able to defend against their bullets! _"Still…I won't give up!"

Steeling his nerve, Suzaku charged the group of four Sutherlands protecting the way out. He jumped as low as possible to the side, then tried to dash forward, but the lack of his landspinners kept him from gaining the needed distance. A barrage of bullets tore into the back of his extended leg as the Sutherland from behind attacked, bringing the Lancelot to one knee in order to protect itself with the Blaze Luminous' emerald shields.

"Attention all forces! Cease fire at once!"

_What?_ Suzaku frowned, but tilted his Lancelot's head towards the sound of Prince Clovis' voice, to receive the sound waves better. On his screen communication with Lloyd and Cecile, Cecile looked just as confused. "…cease fire?"

"In the name of Prince Clovis, Third in line to the Throne of Britannia, and Viceroy of Area Eleven, you are commanded to cease all hostile actions immediately! All destruction of land will cease as well, and all wounded and casualties, be they Britannian or Elevens, will be treated properly and without prejudice! I, Prince Clovis of Britannia, order it so!"

Suzaku gaped openly, unable to believe what he'd heard. _Prince Clovis…actually stopped?_ It didn't make a lot of sense. Prince Clovis had been furious and focused earlier, demanding that they not stop until they'd overturned every rock to find the poison gas. _I guess he was really after that girl, though._

He glanced back at the four Sutherlands blocking the way out. They seemed just as shocked as he did. Their guns were lowered and their eyespheres were aimed at the ceiling, to get a better reception just as he'd done. Maybe, if they kept it up and didn't notice him, he could make it. It was shameful, to have to retreat from common terrorists even when Lloyd had trusted him with a Seventh generation knightmare frame like the Lancelot, but he knew he'd been crippled since the very beginning of the fight. At this point, getting away was the best option he had, and as the last of the Sutherland's lowered their guns, he made his move.

Suzaku pushed as hard as possible and broke past the four Sutherlands in a burst of speed, wincing at the sound of the Lancelot's feet scraping against the stone ground beneath him. A few shots rang out behind him, but he made it to the open air again and quickly launched himself back in the direction of Prince Clovis' mobile base. He hadn't been able to win, but next time, he wouldn't let things repeat themselves so shamefully.

_Lelouch…I'm sorry._

ZZZZZ

Evrard pulled his Sutherland to a stop behind a broken building and lifted one of his hands. Behind him, the five other Sutherlands and the Glasgow waited as well. He peered around the corner carefully, making sure not to move too suddenly. Ahead, a line of Japanese refugees were slowly approaching, being led by a sparse few Britannian soldiers out of the Shinjuku Ghetto. It was the perfect opportunity to slip in and get out of the massacred former-ghetto. It was too bad that the Sutherlands had to be left behind, though.

"Alright, back in the tunnels and ditch the knightmares. " Evrard muttered, already slowly easing backwards on his landspinners. It'd be a hassle getting down the stairs quietly, but they were too close to getting out alive to blow it now. "We'll slip in and get lost in the crowd, just in case they've got our faces."

Minutes later, Evrard and the Japanese were in the middle of the slowly moving swarm of Japanese refugees. All around him were broken spirits and down-trodden looks, from people whose homes were gone and family likely slaughtered. It was a familiar, infuriating sight, and only the weight of the dead girl he carried and both Tamaki's and Kouzuki's tight grips on his elbows kept him from taking action. Tamaki glared at him and shook his head, muttered a soft "Not the time, kid," before he pretended to look just as beaten down as the rest of them.

Evrard scowled and tried to do the same, but found himself looking around again instead. He actively tried to ignore the Britannian soldiers, and how few of them there were and how _goddamn easy it would be to snap each of their necks_. Instead, he focused on searching for a slight frame, black hair, and purple eyes. Lelouch's ejection system had kicked in, Ohgi had confirmed seeing it launch Lelouch away from the fighting, which meant there was at least a chance that Lelouch was nearby. The kid was smart, far smarter than Evrard knew he was himself, so slipping into the crowd to get away probably would've been obvious to him.

As if by fate, a pair of lavender eyes crossed into his vision, and Evrard found himself staring right at Lelouch from across a group of Japanese families. They shared a look of shock before an uncontrolled surge of energy and relief spread through Evrard, propelling him through the Japanese people despite Tamaki and Kallen's complaints. He strode straight to Lelouch and shifted the girl's body so he could grab the other boy by the shoulder and embrace him tightly.

"Lelouch! Oh, god damn it, Lelouch, I thought your ass was toast!" He crowed, laughing with genuine relief. At the very least, out of all that shit, Lelouch was still alive. "Goddamn, I should've known you'd get out!"

"Ugh, let go of me already, Evrard!" Lelouch complained, but laughed right alongside him. He did let Lelouch's shoulder go, but kept close, even as Tamaki and the others caught up. "Seriously, just _hugging_ me out of nowhere like that. Shirley would be-"

"Huh, Lelouch? Wasn't that what you called that guy who was helpin' us?" Tamaki's voice interrupted them, and a sudden tension filled the air. Evrard's mind raced, even as he shifted to stand between Lelouch and the Japanese, just in case. He had no idea what the right thing to do was. _Should I tell them it's him, or just say we got separated before the fighting? Are they gonna care that he's a Britannian?_

"Yeah, you did." Ohgi stepped forward and stood between the boys and the rest of the Japanese fighters. He kept them moving at an even pace, despite the tension between them, but Evrard couldn't name whatever the look in his eyes was. Ohgi honestly seemed like a nice guy, but Evrard knew the only reason he'd gotten by was because of Tamaki's word. Ohgi looked past Evrard, straight to Lelouch. "Please tell us the truth. Are you the one who helped us earlier?"

"…Heh." Lelouch sighed, but laughed just a bit. It made him sound just as tired as Evrard was starting to feel, now that the rush of near-death adrenalin was fading away. "Even at times like this, your calm nature marks your role as a leader. It's good to see that you're alright, P-1."

"I see. In that case…" Evrard gaped, as did two of the Japanese fighters behind Tamaki and Kallen, when Ohgi turned to face Lelouch completely, then bowed deep from his waist. Ohgi smiled, a warm, kindly smile, and nodded to Lelouch. "Thank you very much, Lelouch-kun. Thank you for keeping us safe today, and for doing your best."

At his side, Evrard watched Lelouch's face flush red. For the first time the entire day, Lelouch genuinely looked like an awkward teenager instead of a smug, self-assured brat. Lelouch muttered something under his breath, but acknowledge Ohgi by extending his hand.

"I won't say it was no problem," Lelouch grumbled, despite the small smile on his face. Ohgi gripped his hand and shook it firmly. "…but you're welcome, Ohgi."

"Jeez, enough with the sappiness already!" Tamaki pushed forward and shoved Ohgi out of the way. He slung both of his arms around Lelouch's and Evrard' s necks and marched forward, forcing the two boys to keep up with him. Evrard scowled, but put up with it. Tamaki was still annoying, but after a day like that, it was the kind of annoying that was almost refreshing. Ohgi chuckled and returned to his friends' sides, while Kallen moved to join Tamaki's threesome of bodies.

"So, Lelouch-kun, let me tell you all 'bout how I totally schooled Evrard and Kallen out there today!"

"The hell, Tamaki? You know that's just because you had a goddamn gun!"

"Yeah!" Kallen kicked at Tamaki's shin, making him yelp and pull on Evrard's neck for balance. "Besides, _we're_ the only reason you weren't knocked out of the fight with that white knightmare at the very start!"

"What? You disrespectful brats!"

ZZZZZ

"I'm home."

Lelouch kicked off his shoes at the front door, but didn't proceed up the stairs that lead to his and his sister's rooms. Instead, he stood in the front parlor and stared up into the chandelier and bright, gaudy ornaments that surrounded the high walls of the building the Ashfords had given him. It had been a long day, longer than he'd have ever thought possible while he was still in Japan, but in the end, it had left him with more questions than the answers he'd sought.

Clovis was dead, as the news would report as soon as whoever found him finished spinning their take on it. His half-brother was dead, thanks to the gun he'd thrown away before joining the Japanese crowd and being found by Evrard. His half-brother was dead, and Lelouch had barely gained any progress in finding the identity of his mother's killer. _Cornelia or Schneizel might know, but that's all you knew, Clovis…_Even without knowing the extent of his new power's limits, Lelouch had recognized the foggy look of uncertainty in his half-brother's red-rimmed eyes when he'd asked.

So, not only was he nowhere closer to obtaining vengeance for his mother, but a group of Japanese terrorists knew his false name, and Evrard knew even more than that. He could have simply used his power to erase their memories of him, to have slipped through their notice and be able to walk right by the Japanese, at least, without them being at all aware of whom he was, other than a Britannian. Evrard, though…_Even as Shirley's boyfriend, too many inconsistencies would have arisen, and we'd be found out eventually, anyway._

More peculiarly, though, was that while Lelouch knew he could have easily done a number of things to protect his identity, he'd chosen to do none of them. Even being found by Evrard in the crowd was something he'd made happen. He'd spied Evrard and the red-haired girl in the crowd and had drawn closer, just to make sure that Shirley's boyfriend was still safe. He could've ducked, could've run, could've just kept his face down, and he knew Evrard probably would've skipped right over him, but he hadn't.

He'd let Evrard find him and draw him close, and he'd let Ohgi and his friends know his name. Despite everything he could've done, in the end, he'd…_I trusted them, just as they trusted me._ It was baffling. It was also uncomfortable. Ever since his exile, and the subsequent invasion of Japan, Lelouch had kept almost everyone in his life aside from Nunnally at arm's reach. Even Milly, who he'd known since a child, he'd adopted a façade as a lazy, shiftless, but brilliant schoolboy to bend to her whims, and she'd eaten it up, but for Evrard and the Japanese, who he'd spent not even a whole day fighting alongside, he'd revealed a glimmer of his true self.

"And they thanked me for it. Hah." Lelouch sighed and started up the stairs. They seemed more daunting than usual, but he kept on. At the top, standing as though it weren't the middle of the night, was Sayako, holding a spare set of clothes over one arm and a cup of tea in the other hand. She smiled and bowed as he reached the top, handing him the tea. "…How is Nunnally?"

"Sleeping soundly, Master Lelouch." Sayako accepted the drained cup of tea and walked behind Lelouch to his room. "She will undoubtedly be happy to have breakfast with you tomorrow."

Lelouch grunted and stumbled into his room, falling flat onto his bed. He was tired, and now that he was home, and Nunnally was safe, he could feel the tension escaping his body, leaving him with just an overwhelming desire to sleep. As his eyes slid shut, he absently followed Sayako's form as she walked over to his dresser, put away his sleeping clothes, then silently walked over to his bed. _I can't even hear her steps._ Lelouch mused, watching each foot land, but hearing nothing. Sayako pulled a comforter from the foot of the bed and draped it over Lelouch's body.

Tomorrow, he'd worry about dressing right. Tomorrow, he'd worry about Evrard and his story, and what he was going to tell Shirley. He'd worry about how to handle being known by Ohgi's terrorist group tomorrow as well. It could all wait for tomorrow. As he finally felt the pull of sleep dragging him away, Lelouch mumbled and felt something brush the hair away from his eyes.

"Goodnight, Master Lelouch."

ZZZZZ

"Man, stupid…fucking…key!" Evrard sighed and watched Tamaki struggle with his lock. For as long as he'd lived in the apartment complex, his lock had stuck, sometimes not even accepting the key, and other times opening without needing a key at all. It had left Evrard open to a few night ambushed at first, but after a while, he'd gotten smart and built up a reputation in the ghettos as someone to leave alone. Still, watching Tamaki struggle was a small form of entertainment, especially when he'd been carrying a dead girl's body on his back for hours.

"I'm tellin' you, Evrard. The…fucking!...only reason yer lock is so shitty is 'cause you're a Brit." Tamaki finally stopped trying to wiggle the key out, but resorted to kicking the door itself. Evrard doubted it would do anything, but it probably made Tamaki feel better. "If you'd been Japanese, I bet the landlord would've given you a good, normal lock, and-Got it!"

Tamaki hooted with laughter and shoved his way into Evrard's apartment as though it was his own. Evrard followed, making sure to relock the door and prop a piece of wood against it just in case. It was one of the small things that didn't actually help reinforce the door, but it gave him just a few extra seconds to get ready if someone ever tried to break in.

"Tamaki, quit going through my shit!" Evrard snarled, but continued on to his bedroom instead of stopping the overgrown man-child. He already knew he wasn't going to get much sleep tonight, because of everything that had happened, and because he still needed to finish the homework Tamaki was rubbing his monkey paws over. Evrard shifted the green-haired girl's body until she was in his arms, then laid her down on top of his shitty, but still functioning bed. _At least one of us can use it tonight._

When he returned to the only other room in his apartment, Tamaki was still going through his papers. His papers that had his homework, but also that picture of Shirley that he _didn't_ want Tamaki, of all people, getting his grubby hands on.

"I'm serious, Tamaki; get the fuck outta my stuff!"

"Awww, c'mon, Evrard!" Tamaki dodged the weak swipe Evrard sent his way. Hell, he danced his way out of it like a goddamn monkey. "I'm just curious 'bout what my neighbor, the fancy Brit student by day, and badass ghetto terrorist by night, does for homework!"

"Damn it, Tamaki, I ain't gonna say-"

"Oh damn!" _Oh no. _"Oh, shit, Evrard! Is this your girl? Da~amn, she's got some fine-"

"That's it!" Evrard roared and threw himself at Tamaki, tackling the older man to the ground. He wrestled for the picture Tamaki tried to keep out of his reach, but after a quick punch to Tamaki's kidney, Evrard had his girlfriend's photo back. He shoved it inside his pocket and glared at the gasping Tamaki, then kicked him in the leg for good measure. "Bastard. Don't talk about her like one of your damn whores."

"Owww, fuck you!" Tamaki groaned and held his side. "That hurt! After everything we've been through today, you hit me, you shit! I'm your damn sempai, so show respect!"

The apartment buzzed with silent tension as they glared at each other, Tamaki from the floor, and Evrard from behind his ratty couch, but after a moment, Evrard sighed and held his hand out to Tamaki. "Like I said; when knightmares fly." Tamaki huffed, but pulled himself up with Evrard's help, then threw himself on the couch. Evrard scoffed, but sat down as well, and the two of them just rested there for a few minutes, letting the stress from the day ooze out. After a while, Evrard opened his eyes and watched Tamaki dig for something behind the couch.

"…What are you-" He stopped once Tamaki dragged a stone bottle of sake out from behind his couch. He just stared at it. "…Why is that in my apartment, Tamaki?"

Tamaki shrugged, already working on the cork and sliding one of the two drinking cups over to Evrard's side of the table in front of them. "I had to hide it here a coupl'a days ago 'cause the Brit cops were all over my place. This is good shit! I wasn't about to let some damn Brits just take it away!"

_So you broke into my apartment to stash it here, you fucker._ Evrard signed, but didn't press it. It wasn't like Tamaki had hidden some kind of weapon, so it wasn't worth starting another fight over. He watched Tamaki pour himself a cup and drained it, then gestured towards Evrard with the bottle. Evrard accepted it, but stared at the amber liquid instead of drinking it. From what little he'd seen, the green-haired girl who'd given him and Lelouch powers had golden eyes. It was a shame that, despite everything they'd accomplished, they hadn't been able to keep her from dying.

_I'll bury her tomorrow, before school._ Evrard mumbled a prayer under his breath, then drained the cup. _Fuckin' Tamaki…this tastes like piss! _The sake burned all the way down his throat, but despite the taste, he immediately felt it warm his body. He frowned and stared at the empty cup, but still extended it to Tamaki for a refill.

"Hey, Tamaki?" He swore a bit on the inside at how quiet his voice came out. Tamaki noticed, too, as he actually looked up from his drink to watch. "…forget it."

"Nah, kid, what is it?"

Evrard flashed back to the beginning, where he and Lelouch had been interrupted by Lelouch's friend, the soldier. He remembered the coldness of the tunnel when the girl gave him his power, and then the sudden heat and noise of when the truck exploded. "Who drove the truck today? The poison gas one."

Tamaki kept quiet for a minute and just sipped his sake. He continued until his cup was empty, then refilled it. "…Nagata. Why? Did he die?"

"Yeah. Blew himself up, I guess to keep the gas away from the Britannians." Evrard refused to look at Tamaki. Instead, he leaned back and looked at the dead girl's hair sprawled all over his bed. "…He saved us, Lelouch and me. Let us get out alive."

"Mm. He was a good guy. Bit uptight, but hell!" Tamaki grinned and pointed his cup at Evrard. "I could say the same 'bout you sometimes, kid!"

They both chuckled, but once their laughter died down, they sat quietly on Evrard's ratty old couch and stared into their drinks.

"Hey." Evrard looked up. Tamaki was leaning forward, holding his cup of sake out towards him. "…a toast, to Nagata. And to everyone else."

Evrard smiled and lifted his own cup to clink against Tamaki's, letting the Japanese man lead first. "Kempai," Tamaki muttered, then downed the entire cup in one go. Evrard watched, and then glanced at his homework. Just thinking about it now, it seemed so meaningless in comparison to what he was doing. _Fuck it._ He'd worry about those trivial things like homework and being a student later. Right now, he was sitting next to a comrade, toasting to those who had already fallen. As he thought of Nagata, who he'd never met, and the green-haired girl, who'd died for him, and the countless families and friends lost in Shinjuku, Evrard brought the cup up to his lips and followed Tamaki's example.

"…Kempai."

P. A. N. Google tells me Kempai is used at funerals, and well, why would google ever lie to me about another language's uses?


	4. Chapter 4

A.N. The difference between chapters I can see in my head and those I immediately can't is pretty striking. Scene creation from scratch takes a while to refine. That's about it this time.

Reviewers: Thanks for support, criticism and concerns, all. I genuinely like having all sorts of them as reminders to keep me grounded while I write. Tamaki's probably my favorite BK.

ZZZZZ

"Hey, I'm hungry."

Evrard grumbled as he slowly came back to the world of the awake. Everything was blurry, but thankfully, he hadn't had as much to drink as Tamaki, and there was no hint of a hangover to make his morning suck. It hadn't been the smoothest night, and by the time he'd fallen asleep, it'd been morning, but he felt better. Yesterday had been brutal, both physically and emotionally, but now, other than still feeling a bit sleepy and having Tamaki's disgusting feet near his face, Evrard felt more in control of things. Important things, like his mouth and his life.

"Then go back to your place and eat, Tamaki." He grumbled, glancing around the room until he stopped on golden eyes. _Wait…gold eyes?_ He blinked the sleep away and stared, mouth slowly opening as the green-haired girl from yesterday calmly looked him in the eyes, still dressed in her strait-jacket dress, and not a sign of the bullet hole in her head to be found. "You're…alive."

"Yes." She nodded, but didn't look away. She just kept watching him with those eyes that were slowly making him feel nervous. "I'm also hungry."

"Hungry. Right." Evrard pulled himself up from the couch and stood, awkwardly, looking at the girl, then at Tamaki, then at his stovetop, and back to the girl again. _Am I dreaming?_ He felt his body shuffle towards the stove on auto-pilot while his mind slowly tried to fully wake up and catch up. There was no mistaking it; the girl had been _dead_ yesterday. He'd watched her leap in front of him and he'd _seen_ her body crumple to the ground, a smooth, dark circle marring her forehead from the bullet she'd taken. When he'd picked her up and carried her out of Shinjuku, nothing had changed. The bullet hole had still been there, and she'd still be as dead as any of the Japanese around him.

_What does it mean? _A sudden fist of cold, inexplicable panic seized his chest, and he almost dropped the egg he was frying. She just confirmed she was alive, and there was no chance she was some cruel, mindless prank of Tamaki's. She had the same hair and the same _ancient, golden eyes_ that had watched him and Lelouch during the chase, and Tamaki had never seen her eyes. Did it have to do with the powers she'd granted them? _…She wanted a wish. What wish could need giving people powers?_

"Hey, you're burning it." Her voice right behind him snapped him out of the panicked funk, and he reflexively flipped the egg. Evrard looked down into the pan. She was right; some of the yolk had turned bread-like. "…S-Sorry."

"It's alright." She moved to his side and watched him add rice to the pan. Her eerie, golden eyes watched the egg move onto the rice, further away from the heat. "You should relax. You're going to hurt yourself with your Geass if you're so tense."

_So the power is called Geass? _"Does that mean you know what my…Geass is?" He combined the food into a bowl and handed it to the girl. Rather than answer his question, though, she simply took the bowl and returned to the couch. He watched her leave, feeling a flicker of annoyance. Not a word of thanks, and not even giving any hint that she planned on answering him. He hadn't even realized that he'd been using the last of his good food to make her breakfast, meaning he'd have to wait until lunch to get any himself, thanks to her.

"You're wasting your time." The girl leaned her head back and glared at him, still looking bored. "Your Geass won't work on me. I gave it to you, after all." She paused and leaned forward again to glance at her side. Evrard stepped forward to see what she was looking at. _Just…Tamaki?_ Tamaki was still asleep, though he seemed bothered. He fidgeted and tossed, like he was having a bad dream. "…Interesting. Your Geass is developing faster than I thought."

"Tch!" Evrard bit back the question that was at the tip of his tongue. She clearly wasn't going to answer anything he asked, at least not directly. He hadn't missed that she'd indirectly let him know the name of the powers, or let him know when he was using it without realizing it _twice_. He glanced back towards the stovetop and the small fridge he owned. Exactly how the girl was alive was a mystery, but if she planned on staying, he was going to need to restock on food. At least he'd won enough off Lelouch's game the day before to last a few weeks.

Near the fridge, the only clock in his entire apartment flashed the time. Evrard swore under his breath, but quickly picked up all his things and shoved them into his bag. Most of his stuff was still at Ashford itself, so it would be a light trip, but with his bike still stranded somewhere in the streets, providing it hadn't been stripped for parts already, he had a long walk ahead of him to get to Ashford in time.

"…I'll be back later today. Maybe we can talk then." She looked his way, then blinked at the handful of bills he held out to her. After a moment, she accepted them and calmly locked eyes with him. "…There's no food left, so if you get hungry, you can order something. Later."

ZZZZZ

C.C. returned to her food before Evrard even left the apartment. As far as first meetings with contracts went, the first of her new boys hadn't been too bothersome. Unlike some other contracts in the past, he'd stopped trying to get answers from her quickly and just gave her food when she wanted it. Of course, it wasn't the best meal she'd ever had, but given that her contract appeared to live in a hovel, it wasn't terrible. At least he'd been sensible enough to not scream and overreact when she'd woken him up.

_The loud-mouthed ones who freak out are the worst. _C.C. mused, taking another bite of her breakfast.

"Mmh, izzat breakfast?" C.C. glanced over at the red-haired Japanese man. Her contract had called him 'Tanuki' or something like that. The man yawned and sat up, scratching himself, then eyed her. "Damn…had way too much to drink, Ev-!" There was a blessed moment of silence in which Tanuki just stared at her, eyes wide and mouth gaping. She brought another small bite of food to her mouth and waited for the explosion she dreaded, but knew was about to happen.

"Oh, shit! Ghost-woman!" C.C. frowned behind her bowl and tried to block out his voice, but it just grew louder as he yelped and fell backwards over the couch's arm. She peevishly glared at him, trying to will him to stop babbling, but she didn't have her second contract's Absolute Obedience, so Tanuki's uproar and loud, annoying attempts to create more distance between the two of them continued. Eventually, holding a dirty frying pan in his hand, Tanuki managed to look at her without making senseless noise.

"H-Hey, ghost-woman!" _Or not._ "What the hell are you doin' in Evrard's apartment?"

"Eating." She took another bite to prove her point.

"I can see that, damn it!" Did he have to be so loud? Her contract's apartment wasn't big. She could hear him just fine. "I mean, w-what the hell-how are you alive? You were totally dead earlier!"

C.C. sighed. "And now I'm not. That's all someone like you needs to know." Really, someone with no potential like him shouldn't even be complaining. She glared at him again. He wasn't even capable of…"Hey, hold still."

"W-What?" She stood up and slowly walked over to Tanuki, staring at his chest and around his sides. She ignored the nervousness oozing off him and focused on his face instead. His eyes were wide open and frantic, but underneath…"Hey…what the hell you lookin' at, huh?" _And there's a spark._

"Hm." She smiled and held her bowl up in front of her face to hide it. A third one with potential, and still connected to her first two boys. _Maybe they'll stand a chance after all._ "Evrard and I are bound by a contract. In exchange for power, he will grant me a wish."

"…So what?" Tanuki finally lost his shocked look, and now he looked a little angry. How interesting. "Yer some kind of immortal witch who gives people magic powers? Do I look stupid?"

"Believe it or don't, it's your choice." She smirked and dropped her bowl in his hands, then turned away and walked back towards the bedroom. Idiots made her tired and loud idiots made it worse, but they _were_ fun to tease. "Maybe I'll grant you power as well, if you beg for it."

She ignored his angry rebuttal and shut the door behind her. She'd never show it in front of an idiot like Tanuki, but giving not just one, but two Geass yesterday, combined with how weak those annoying scientists had kept her, _and _with getting shot in the head, still left her tired. She walked over to the bed and plopped down on it, looking around the room. It was a bare room, really just a bed, a door, and a dresser she assumed clothes were in. It was barely any better than the main room she'd just left, but it had a bed, and it didn't have loud people in it.

"…No, here will do for now." She spoke aloud, then fell down to rest on the pillow. "I doubt _he'd_ let me live with him, anyway."

ZZZZZ

Lelouch smiled, content and relaxed from a night of undisturbed, well-needed sleep. Despite everything that had been running through his mind throughout the trip back to Ashford, he'd managed to get to bed and sleep soundly throughout the night. Best of all, Sayako had breakfast ready, as always, leaving Lelouch with the time to enjoy his morning before school with Nunnally. No interruptions, no dangers, just Nunnally and himself spending time together.

More than ever before, he was thankful to be able to sit down and share breakfast with his little sister. The events in Shinjuku had thrown him dangerously close to never making it back many times, and more than dying, he feared leaving Nunnally truly and utterly alone. He took in her gentle smile, calm, soft movements as she ate, and the honest smile she shone with even with a bit of soup dripping from her mouth.

"Let me get that, Nunna." Lelouch reached over and dabbed at her chin with his napkin. She beamed and waited for him to finish, trusting and unsuspecting that just the previous day, his hands had taken the life of one of their half-brothers. _I'd never let any of them threaten your safety, Nunnally._ "There you go. Don't feel like you have to rush. We have plenty of time."

"Thank you, Brother." Nunnally smiled at him and returned to her food, allowing him to go back to his thoughts as well.

Now secure in his home, without the constant fear that _somehow Clovis had discovered Nunnally and she would be gone forever_ haunting him, Lelouch was able to focus on the biggest issue he had. A group of Japanese terrorists knew his name, and by knowing his name and what he looked like, it wouldn't be hard for them to find out where he lived, and that was unacceptable. Even worse, while their leader, Ohgi, seemed alright with him, some of the others had openly expressed their distrust of him and Evrard because they were Britannian alone.

_If even one of them were to spread my name around…_Lelouch didn't want to imagine how badly things could go. Of all his early Japanese contacts, he'd only passingly kept up with Taizo Kirihara. The Kururugi's had completely distanced themselves after the invasion, for reasons he understood, but even then, he knew only a few Japanese in power who already knew of him and could keep the secret. If any of the terrorists groups, especially the JLF, found out that a Britannian schoolboy who happened to resemble the Britannian prince that was supposed to have died on their soil during the invasion, it wouldn't be pretty.

He had two basic options; either he used his power to guarantee his and Nunnally's safety, proving himself just like his father, or he gave them a reason to not investigate his identity. The easiest reason was obvious, but so were the dangers of it. If he just revealed that he was an ex-prince of Britannian, there was no telling how they would respond. Even the mild, calm Ohgi could likely fall prey to the allure of having royalty as a hostage, and he knew that there were plenty of Japanese who would simply kill him just for sharing the same blood as the Emperor. He wanted to believe in Ohgi, in the trust the man had extended and the warm, comfortable smile he'd given Lelouch, but he knew too little and there were too many unknowns.

_Throwing around what they 'might' do won't get me anywhere._ Lelouch frowned. He could spend all morning and half the day considering the hypotheticals, but what he needed was a solid decision, and for that, he needed more information. Beyond that, there was also Evrard to keep in mind. He'd _seen_ Lelouch use his power to control the soldiers, and while he'd seemed fine listening to Lelouch at the time, he hadn't missed Evrard's look of wariness at the beginning. He needed to talk to Evrard and see where they stood, and depending on how that conversation went…

"Lelouch?" He blinked and looked up. Nunnally was facing him, her breakfast done, and a curious expression on her face. "Are you ready to go?"

"Of course, Nunnally." Evrard, he could handle in school. He'd think more on Ohgi's group, and the consequences of Clovis' death later. For now, he was a brother taking his little sister to school, and that was all he needed.

ZZZZZ

Even dressed in the Ashford Academy uniform, having finally used up her excused days for skipping, Kallen was in a good mood. The thrill and excitement from the day before still pumped through her. It made sleeping almost impossible, and though she still felt tired, the knowledge and the _rush_ from having beaten Britannia so soundly energized her like nothing else. Winning was a great feeling, and it was one she hoped would help her survive an entire day as sickly, soft-spoken, _weak_ Kallen Stadtfeld.

She watched the streets and buildings pass by from the window of her family's limousine. While she wanted to simply job to school to help keep fit, her sickly persona demanded she play the part of the well-bred Britannian daughter, which meant escorts and pretending to be demure and being driven to school. She stared out the limousine's window and watched the streets and buildings pass by, letting herself drift off and think about Shinjuku again.

While she still appreciated the help from Tamaki's friend, Kallen knew that without the second one, Lelouch, they probably wouldn't have even escaped alive. The way he'd controlled the battlefield had been amazing, and somehow, she knew he had to be responsible for that cease-fire, too. Not to mention that he'd combined saving her from those Sutherlands and giving out Sutherlands to all her friends, all in however long they'd been there.

It had been amazing, but the only problem was that the both of them were Britannians, so their assistance made no sense, and even crazier, she'd recognized the uniforms they'd been wearing as they were all sneaking out of Shinjuku with the refugees. It was the male uniform's outer jacket worn at Ashford. She hadn't realized it until long after they'd all split ways and she was alone in her father's house, but it was weird.

Kallen didn't know anything about Evrard, other than Lelouch had mentioned some Shirley's name, so it was possible he had a girlfriend. No Shirley's came to mind, either, though if she was anything like any of the other Britannian girls, there was probably a reason Kallen didn't remember her. Lelouch, on the other hand, Kallen had heard plenty of, though none of it was substantial. _A lazy, but brilliant heartthrob of Ashford Academy, and the Student Council Vice-President. _Kallen had heard plenty of her fake-friends sigh in longing when Lelouch had walked by, but until now, she hadn't considered him anything more than a pretty face and a Britannian.

"…and then he goes and saves us in Shinjuku." Kallen muttered, looking out her window. It just didn't make sense. She _knew_ Britannian students. They were vain, selfish, brain-headed little brats who didn't even know or care that their comforts were made at the expense of the Japanese people. They complained about boyfriends and meaningless spats. They didn't show up in the middle of a massacre and _help_ Japanese people out, let alone in fighting against Britannia itself. "…huh?"

She looked out the window again and focused on the sidewalk. At first, she only saw a blur, but as the car approached, she was able to notice the black Ashford coat. A few seconds later, she easily identified one of the paradoxes she'd been thinking about. There was no mistaking the Ashford coat, and she remembered enough of Evrard's face to pick him out of an empty sidewalk, but what he was doing there was a mystery.

"Hey, driver. Pull over." Her driver, one of her step-mother's hired goons, shot her a tired glare, but she glared right back. While she needed to pretend to be an invalid flower for the Britannians at school, she hadn't bothered to treat any of her step-mothers' staff to that lie. They knew full well what would happen if they pissed her off. "Do it. Now."

The limousine pulled to a stop along the sidewalk. Kallen rolled down her window and poked her head out at Evrard, who had stopped as soon as the vehicle slowed. She let him study her for a moment, then smirked a little when the recognition flashed in his eyes. She knew she looked way different from how she'd been the day before, but it was ridiculously easy to tell who she was as far as she was concerned. Even amongst the Britannians, red hair and blue eyes wasn't _that_ commonplace.

"Hey. Evrard…right?" He nodded, eyes shifting from her to the front of her limo. _Is he suspicious about who's driving?_ "You're…walking to Ashford?"

"Stuck walking for now. Far as I know, my bike's still on that road where we left it." He shrugged, like it wasn't a big deal, and gave her an almost apologetic look.

Kallen frowned from behind her window and watched him for a minute. She knew next to nothing about him, other than he was Tamaki's neighbor, but wouldn't that mean he lived in one of the ghettoes? It didn't make sense for a place as prestigious as Ashford Academy to let someone who could only afford to live in one of the ghettoes attend, so was there some sort of blackmail or threat he had keeping him in? There were too many questions, but now was the perfect time to get some answers to them.

"Hey, you want a ride? You wouldn't be late if you rode with me." She checked her pocket for her purse, the one with the hidden knife attached. He'd been her ally in the heat of life or death, so she doubted she'd need to use it, but better safe than sorry. _This is too good an opportunity to find out more about them both to pass up._

"Yeah, sure. Thanks, Kouzuki." She opened the door for him and he got in, dropping his meager bag in between his feet once he was sitting down. He looked around at the inside of the limousine, then scoffed and eyed her for a bit. He wasn't staring like the other brats at Ashford did, trying to undress her with their eyes. If anything, he looked curious. "What's with the gentle lamb get-up?"

"Huh? Oh…" It only took a second for Kallen to understand what Evrard was talking about. Dressed in Ashford's slutty, annoyingly bright uniform and with her hair limp and lifeless, she knew she looked practically half-dead compared to when she was in her comfort zone, out with Ohgi and the rest of her brother's resistance group. She played with a bit of her hair and sighed, annoyance flitting across her face. "Kouzuki Kallen doesn't attend Ashford. Kallen Stadtfeld, noble daughter of Sir Stadtfeld, does, and she's a sickly, sheltered schoolgirl."

To her chagrin, Evrard actually started laughing. "Ha! I don't envy that, not for all the money in Britannia." He smirked at her and extended his hand. "Sorry you'll have to play half-dead and all-dumb for the whole day, _Lady_ Stadtfeld."

Kallen snorted, making sure to make it as un-ladylike as possible, but gripped his hand firmly and pumped it up and down. "Why _thank you_, Sir Evrard. You really know how to make a lady feel better, don't you?" He let go of her hand with another laugh, and she shared it this time. At the very least, she'd found out he wasn't holding onto any of the Britannians' stuck-up traditions of how women should act. "Hey, Evrard. If you go to Ashford, why do you live next to Tamaki?"

All the laughter faded from Evrard's eyes the instant she stopped talking, and for a moment, Kallen wondered if she'd just stepped onto a landmine. Evrard stared at her with a guarded look, but after a few awkward moments of silence, he sighed and shrugged, smirking lopsidedly at her. "Simple. Even with a deal and a favor from the Headmaster, all I can afford are the classes."

_I? Not we, or his parents? _Speaking of parents, why would they even let him live in the ghetto? Kallen suddenly felt a thickness in her throat, but she kept going. She'd brought him into her limousine to get answers. She couldn't back out now. "Your parents don't help you with that? It's just you?"

"My family's dead, Kouzuki." His tone was flat, like it was something he was used to reporting, but he was still watching her with a small smirk. She flinched and tried to think of something to say, but 'sorry' just sounded fake and empty. "So yeah, it's just me."

"…How did they die?"

Evrard burst out in laughter again, but it was different from when she'd made him laugh earlier. His laughter sounded angry and bitter. It sounded like the laughter she heard from some of Naoto's friends when things were really down. "They were murdered, just like anyone who lived in Japan seven years ago and opposed the invasion. Didn't matter who you were or what you'd done…" She watched Evrard's face twist into an ugly sneer. "…if you were a sympathizer and didn't have money, you were a traitor. And all traitors were put to death."

A stifling silence took over the inside of the limousine once Evrard stopped talking. Kallen tried to look him in the eyes, but he'd crossed his arms and stared out the window, clearly not willing to continue. _Well, I got the answers I wanted…_ It was too bad that getting them had dragged up unpleasant memories, ones that she could only somewhat sympathize with. Britannia had stolen her brother away from her, for being a Japanese rebel. They'd stolen Evrard's family from him just for apparently showing pity.

"Miss Stadtfeld?" Her driver's voice crackled through the intercom. "We've arrived at Ashford Academy, Miss."

"Ah…" She glanced outside, where students still stood at the front gates, talking to each other about mundane things, then back at Evrard. Of all things, she hadn't planned on upsetting him by bringing up his family. "I-"

"Relax, Kouzuki." He held up his hand, and she watched as most of the bitterness and anger seemed to die out, replaced by the indifferent, stony look he'd had at the very beginning. He smirked at her and opened the limousine door, stepped out, and held it open for her. "It's been seven years. I'm…over it, so let's head to class, _Lady_ Stadtfeld."

She ignored the obvious lie, but accepted the hand out of the car. As soon as the door had opened, Kouzuki Kallen had disappeared, and Kallen Stadtfeld had come to life. _As weak and pathetic as life as an invalid can be._ She smiled demurely in thanks to Evrard, then began walking forward into Ashford. As usual, the group of students that followed her around school gathered around her, already firing off questions about 'that hoodlum' faster than she could keep up with. Not so usual, though, was the suspicious glare that a girl with orange hair shot her, but before she could check it out, she'd been herded further inside, to a day of suffering as Kallen Stadtfeld.

ZZZZZ

"Aw, c'mon, Lelouch! I said I was sorry!"

"Nonetheless, Rivalz," Lelouch glared at his blue-haired friend, taking a small measure of satisfaction at the wince Rivalz returned. "…you still ratted me out to Shirley. I should have just skipped the Student Council meeting and let you flounder with the budget this morning."

"B-But you didn't, buddy, and I swear, I appreciate it!" Rivalz grabbed Lelouch by the shoulders and hung his head, the very image of desperation and despair. Lelouch smirked at his overdramatic antics, but let him continue. It was petty, but he was still sure that it was only because of Rivalz telling Shirley about the chess match that his phone had rang at such an unlucky moment. _For indirectly almost getting me killed, Rivalz, I will enjoy every moment of your suffering._ "I mean, with Shirley gone for some reason, I'd have been left with just Nina! And—is that Shirley?"

Lelouch blinked, but followed Rivalz' extended finger to the doorway of their first classroom. Unsurprisingly, Shirley _was_ standing there, but the real shock came from the fact that Evrard was there as well. Lelouch held Rivalz back from greeting them, just in time for Shirley to turn to face Evrard, her face slightly red and clearly tinged with frustration.

"I swear, Evrard, I was so worried when your club told me you'd left your phone with them! Then I call Lelouch—" Lelouch gulped as he realized what he was watching. Of all the things he'd planned on addressing that morning, he'd forgotten about dealing with Shirley entirely. His mind raced as he watched Shirley continue to chastise the admittedly guilty-looking Evrard. "—and he tells me something about you both being in trouble, and then hangs up on me! I spent the _entire night_ wondering what happened, and you show up this morning in Kallen Stadtfeld's car?" Shirley's face shifted as the anger bled out, replaced by open worry. "Just…what were you two doing yesterday?"

Evrard's eyes shifted around until they landed on Lelouch, and he recognized the look in Evrard's eyes the instant they met. _ Don't you dar—_"Ah, Lelouch!" _Damn it._

"Lelouch?" Shirley turned around, but as soon as she saw him, she frowned and crossed her arms, giving Lelouch what was probably the most disappointed look he'd been on the receiving end since Euphemia. At his side, Rivalz chuckled and started pushing him towards the doorway, where Shirley and a pointlessly apologetic-looking Evrard waited. Once Lelouch was stuck standing before the frowning Shirley, Rivalz abandoned him with a chuckle and headed into the safety of the classroom.

_Traitor. _"Shirley…"

"I know you heard me just now, Lulu." Shirley somehow managed to combine looking hurt and disappointed into a single look, and Lelouch found he couldn't look her in the face for too long. "Evrard keeps telling me that it's your story to tell—" For a moment, Lelouch was torn between cursing Evrard for putting the heat on him, and thanking him for letting Lelouch control how the story went. "—so, please, Lulu; what happened?"

"Woah!" A din erupted from the classroom, causing the three of them to look inside. A number of students were crowded around one boy's desk, where some sort of news video was playing. "Man, I can't believe the terrorists used poison gas on Shinjuku!"

"…That's what happened, Shirley." She whipped around to stare at him, eyes wide, but his mind was focused on making sure the story was solid. After a few awkward seconds of thought, he knew it would work. "Evrard and I were heading back from my match when someone driving away from Shinjuku almost crashed into us. Evrard got us out of the way in time, but the other driver crashed their truck into a rail." He smiled at Shirley's slowly relaxing expression and gestured to Evrard. "When we went to make sure they were alright, we accidentally got stuck in their truck bed, and we ended up getting lost for a while with no connection. By the time you'd called, we were working on navigating our way back home."

Shirley looked between Lelouch and Evrard for a while, clearly thinking, but eventually, she smiled warmly and started to laugh in relief. "I believe you, Lulu. I'm so glad it wasn't anything more dangerous." She smiled at him, but turned to Evrard and adopted a more strict expression. "As for you, Evrard, that still doesn't explain why you arrived in Kallen's limousine this morning.""

"That—Lelouch?"

Lelouch registered Evrard's concerned voice near him, but Shirley's words and the background noise of the news report on Shinjuku had triggered something inside. Without warning, the halls of Ashford Academy warped and twisted themselves into the command chamber of Clovis' mobile base. Shirley and Evrard's concerned faces faded away, turning into grey swirls that reformed themselves in Clovis' image. Lelouch stood before the shade-Clovis, his gun drawn and aimed at his half-brother's temple.

_I believe you._

_The look on Clovis' face. The relaxed muscles, the relief and the hope in his eyes. The hope that he would live, that I would return with him? What went through Clovis' mind, when I stood before him with a gun in my hand?_

_But…_

_The hope snuffed out and relief replaced by a growing fear. The gasp of breath as I shoved the gun into Clovis' chest, aiming for his black heart. The tears that started to form in my half-brother's eyes._

_You can't change the world without getting your hands dirty._

_Gripping the gun tight. Pulling the trigger, and—_

Lelouch gasped and threw his hands over his mouth. Bile and his breakfast with Nunnally formed in the back of his throat, and the overwhelming nausea stole the strength from his legs. He collapsed forward, but felt an arm catch him in the chest before he hit the floor. Lelouch groggily looked upward, where Evrard's concerned face stared into his. He couldn't think, couldn't focus and the longer he stood in front of them, with Shirley's wide eyes watching him, the worse it got.

"Bathroom!" Lelouch rasped, and nearly groaned with relief when Evrard grabbed him by the shoulders as well and guided him to the boys' bathroom. Evrard said something he couldn't understand to Shirley, but as soon as he heard it, Evrard had pulled him into one of the stalls and leaned him over the bowl. For minutes, Lelouch hurled the last of his breakfast and anything else in his stomach as the memories and sensations of killing Clovis slammed into him. At his side, he absently noted Evrard standing silently, but with the agonizing emptying of his stomach, Lelouch just didn't care.

Eventually, his stomach had nothing left to purge, and Lelouch just held himself over the toilet bowl on shaky arms. He fought against the passing nausea and tried to summon his composure. He couldn't afford to be weak, not with Evrard still standing near, and not with him not knowing where Evrard stood in regards to him. On the bright side, and with the foul taste in his mouth, Lelouch grasped for any bright sides, the opportunity to gauge Evrard's feelings about what had happened had just presented itself perfectly. They were alone, and class was bound to start soon, so they'd stay that way. If Lelouch ended up needing to use his power, he had the best conditions.

"You alright there, Lelouch?" He turned his head to see Evrard's arm extended to him. Lelouch huffed, but wiped his mouth with some toilet paper and accepted the help up. He strode over to the sink and started splashing water on his face. It was now or never. As far as chances for a one-on-one conversation in the best conditions went, he wasn't going to get one better than now.

"I guess I'm not as tough as I thought." Lelouch joked, catching Evrard's eye through his reflection in the bathroom mirror. He hesitated for just a moment, so he could take in Evrard's concerned, probably trusting visage. _After all, this could be the last time I see it. _"Evrard." He made sure Evrard was focused entirely on his eyes, just in case. "I killed Prince Clovis."

Evrard's eyes widened in shock, and Lelouch mentally prepared himself with the perfect command for him, but other than eying Lelouch oddly, Evrard made no other action. An awkward silence filled the bathroom as the two simply stared at each other, Lelouch waiting for some sort of reaction, be it disbelief or _anything_, until Evrard coughed and nodded. "Yesterday?"

"Correct." What was he thinking? For just an instant, Lelouch wished he'd gotten a power that let him read minds, if only to not have to put up with this lack of knowing. "When the white knight forced me to eject. I forced him to call the cease fire, and then…"

Evrard shrugged and moved to Lelouch's side. He turned on another faucet and started washing his hands. "Was it your first time?" Lelouch shot him a confused look, and it must have gone through, as Evrard sighed, but continued. "…Killing someone ."

Another series of memories burst to life in Lelouch's thoughts. He went back to just after the invasion of Japan, when he and Suzaku had been dragging Nunnally with them in search of safety. He remembered the aches and pains, the hunger and the fear, and the soldiers that he and Suzaku had needed to avoid. Of them, he immediately remembered the ones they couldn't avoid. The ones that they'd been forced to deal with to keep Nunnally from being frightened or taken away.

"…No." Lelouch frowned and turned his eyes downward. He started to wash his own hands as he and Evrard silently listened to the sound of running water. There would be no need to use his power to change Evrard's mind. "But it was the first time I didn't need to."

ZZZZZ

A.N. : Wheee the rest of the day finishes up next chapter. Have a good one. Maaaan, that last conversation took 4 tries to get to thissss.


End file.
